Mumbai residents can view COVID containment zones in Google Maps

Google on Thursday launched a new feature in the COVID-19 layer on Maps that displays the demarcation of containment zones in Mumbai.

Google said it is working closely with the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) for sourcing this information and will update this data regularly.

As people and businesses emerge from the lockdown, access to clear information about COVID-19 containment zones as recommended by the authorities in Mumbai will enable users to make better decisions as they move around the city.

"This new feature strengthens our commitment towards working closely with the government to disseminate helpful, authoritative, and relevant information for people during the pandemic," said a company spokesperson.

Maharashtra's coronavirus tally on Wednesday reached 14,80,489 with 14,578 fresh cases coming to light, according to state health officials.

With 355 new fatalities being reported, the death toll in the state reached 39,072.

Mumbai city reported 2,848 new cases, taking its overall caseload to 2,19,961, with the death toll rising to 9,248.

Google announced a COVID-19 layer in Maps in September globally, which enables users to also access state-level COVID-19 statistics.

When a user zooms out to view an entire state, this new layer overlays the number of new COVID-19 cases (a seven-day average) indicated per 100,000 users, and the trend in the number of cases in that state.

"This feature will cover all Indian states, and is also available in several other regions globally," Google said.

To beign with, the users in Mumbai can now see COVID-19 containment zones across the city in their Google Maps app.

This will be displayed when a user in Mumbai enables the ‘COVID-19 info' layer, where demarcated zones will be displayed via a shaded grey area.