Facebook is expanding its Covid-19 Announcement tool to India, the social media major has announced.
The tool is meant for the health departments of States and Union Territories to share essential Covid-19 related updates with their communities.
“This is part of our ongoing efforts to support the public health authorities’ work to keep people safe and informed during the coronavirus public health crisis,” Facebook said in an official release.
India is the second country after the United States to launch this feature. The tech giant has partnered with 33 states and Union Territories to roll out this tool in their respective jurisdictions in India.
“The Covid-19 Announcement feature will give health departments the ability to push out timely, credible Covid-19 and vaccine information to people in their local communities/ state jurisdictions. States will be able to issue these alerts statewide or to specific cities within their state,” Facebook said.
When posts by state health department pages on Facebook are marked as Covid-19 Announcements, the platform will amplify their reach so that people located in the community are more likely to see them.
It will also send notifications to people located in the affected area, and will also show that information on the Covid-19 Information Center.
“This will help distribute important and urgent updates related to Covid-19 or Covid-19 vaccination efforts to people in the community,” it said.
The Covid-19 Announcements can be used to communicate important information and updates such as information on existing Covid-19 resources, such as helplines, updates on hospital bed availability in districts, such as Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds and oxygen supported beds and changes to existing Covid-19 rules and regulation such as lockdowns, night curfews and changes to treatment protocols.
It can also be used to communicate information such as updates about vaccine eligibility and registration, and the logistics of acquiring a vaccine, accurate information on Covid-19 appropriate behavior and preventive behavioral health measures to stop the spread of Covid-19.
