Google Maps Can Help you To Find Closest Vaccination Centres
A lot of us aren’t really eligible for getting the COVID vaccine right now, however, the elders in our family or neighbourhood are. To make sure that not much time is wasted in looking for a vaccination centre outside, people should do the proper research beforehand.
If the concerned person is well-informed regarding the location of the closest vaccination centre and if it is open, they can save themselves a lot of time and can also avoid going out unnecessarily. Google Maps can help you in this by looking for the closest vaccination centres. A new feature of Google maps will let the users know where they can go to get vaccinated and who all are eligible to get a vaccine. It will also provide the users with a list of vaccination centres and whether they are open. Hence, this navigation tool will come in handy especially during this scary second wave of COVID-19. It is necessary more than ever to stay indoors right now and get to know about vaccination centres from home instead of looking for them by physically going outside.
The Chief Health Officer at Google Health, Karen DeSalvo also announced that Google Maps will let the users know if there are vaccines available around them.
How to find nearby Covid-19 vaccination centres using the Google Maps app
Step 1: Download Google Maps
You can download and install the latest version of Google Maps using the Play Store if you are using an Android phone or you can use the App Store if you have an iPhone. If you already have Google Maps on your phone, you can proceed towards the next step.
Step 2: Look for your city on Google Maps
Remember to keep the device’s location in the settings. This way Google will automatically detect your city or locality on Google Maps. However, you can also choose to search up your city manually on the top search bar. For example, you can type ‘Delhi’ in the top search bar to search for your city.
Step 3: Look for ‘vaccination centres’
Once you have successfully opened the option for your city the app, you can go ahead and search ‘vaccination centres’ in the same search bar. Google maps will then show you a list of clinics and hospitals near you that have the authority to vaccinate people.
Step 4: Check the listings
After getting the search results, you can go through the results and tap on each of the listings to check additional details like timings, address and more. Evaluate which vaccination centre will best suit your needs according to timing and convenience and happens to be the closest. If you pick a vaccination centre that’s too far away, you will have to stay outside for too long which can increase the risk of infection.
As of now, India is dealing with the second wave of Covid-19 and it has launched the third phase of vaccination for dealing with this second wave. In the third phase of vaccination, people above the age of 45 years are eligible to receive the vaccination. Right now, India is using the vaccines Covisheild and Covaxcin, Covisheild is being produced by the Serum Institute of India whereas Covaxcin is being developed by Bharat Biotech based in Hyderabad. Sputnik V is another vaccine that has been approved in India and the first batch of Russia’s Sputnik V will be imported in India this month.
People, however, need to be very careful and it is necessary to minimise human contact and maintain social distancing even if you go to get vaccines. It is important to stay safe and wear a mask at all times if you are out in a public place.