Apple works with White House to release 'COVID-19' app, website

[March 28, 2020]    (Reuters) - Apple Inc and the White House said on Friday that the iPhone maker worked with the Trump administration and federal agencies to release an app and website that will direct users to guidance from the Centers for Disease Control on the disease caused by the coronavirus.

The Apple Inc. logo is seen hanging at the entrance to the Apple store on 5th Avenue in Manhattan, New York, U.S., October 16, 2019. REUTERS/Mike Segar

The app, which will be available in the app store as “COVID-19,” will ask users questions about symptoms, location and risk factors and then provide the appropriate up-to-date guidance from the CDC, White House officials said.

The app will also answer frequently asked questions about the coronavirus disease with official information from the CDC. The same information will be available at a website https://www.apple.com/covid19 that will be accessible to the users of Windows PCs, Android phones and other non-Apple devices.

Apple said that it will not collect the answers users give to the app and website's questions and that the answers will not be sent to either Apple or any government entity.

Based in northern California, Apple's headquarters have been under lockdown orders for more than a week. Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook earlier this week said that the company had donated 10 million protective masks to U.S. health care groups after using Apple's supply chain team to locate and buy the masks.

(Reporting by Steve Holland in Washington and Stephen Nellis in San Francisco; Editing by Marguerita Choy)

[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.