You will now be able to find COVID-19 vaccine locations on Apple Maps and Google Maps. Both the apps have collaborated with VaccineFinder to make the vaccine locations available for users in the US. The VaccineFinder is an online service by Boston Children’s Hospital. The latest updates on both Apple and Google Maps bring the service to compatible devices.
Available For Select States
The apps fetch vaccine information from VaccineFinder’s official website, which stores a list of vaccination locations. As handy as this information could come for every country, it will only be available for the following states in the US for now. We can expect both Google and Apple to bring this feature to other regions and countries.
• Alaska
• Tennessee
• Indiana
• Utah
• Iowa
• Oklahoma
• New York State (excluding New York City)
VaccineFinder offers significant information about vaccination locations in the select states of the US. For other states, here’s what the service says: “In other states, information may be limited while more providers and pharmacies are added in the coming weeks.”
How To Find Vaccine Locations In Google Maps & Apple Maps
To use the feature in Apple Maps, users will have to do this:
Tap the search bar > select ‘COVID-19 Vaccines’ from the ‘Find Nearby’ menu.
Google Maps users can follow these steps:
Search “COVID vaccine” in the app, and it will show you different locations that you can select as per your preference.
To find vaccine locations in different areas, users will have to type their ZIP code and select from a drop-down list for distances. The list can show up to the distance of 50 miles. Users will also be able to filter results as per the vaccine of their choice. They can choose from these vaccines – Moderna COVID Vaccine, Pfizer-BioNTech COVID Vaccine, and Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen COVID Vaccine.
The feature also directly links to the CDC Vaccine FAQs to bring legit information to iOS and Android devices. Even virtual assistants – Siri and Google Assistant – can fetch this information quickly for users.
In another update regarding bringing more information about COVID-19 and business operations to users, Apple has added COVID-19 modules for business placards featuring more than 4,400 locations. Apple’s latest update will “allows retailers to communicate COVID-19-related information to their customers, like special shopping hours.”g
Google had already been showing such information to users. The search engine giant continually builds upon business listing shown in search results and includes more info and stats for users to know business operations around their area.
