Apple, Google to work together & help health officials with contact tracing via Bluetooth

In a move to scale up the efforts to tackle the coronavirus pandemic, Apple CEO Tim Cook revealed that the tech giant was working with Google to help health officials in contact tracing via Bluetooth technology. Cook took to Twitter to reveal that Apple was going to be joining hands with Sundar Pichai's Google in order to help health officials harness Bluetooth technology with no compromise on transparency and privacy. Tim Cook pointed out that contact tracing could help slow down the rate of COVID-19 spread and said that it could be done without compromising on privacy. 

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Apple, Google join hands to help health officials

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US records more than 2,000 deaths

The United States has become the first country to record more than 2,000 coronavirus deaths in one day. A total of 2,108 people died from the virus in the past 24 hours, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally. The country has now recorded 18,586 deaths, coming close to overtaking Italy as the country with the highest death toll. The latest figures for Italy show 18,849 deaths. The US is also approaching half a million confirmed cases of COVID-19, with 496,535 – an increase of 35,098 in the past 24 hours. 

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However, the number of newly hospitalised patients in the hardest-hit state of New York has dropped to a one per cent increase. As of Friday, the New York metropolitan area accounted for more than half the nation’s over 18,000 deaths, with other hot spots in places such as Detroit, Louisiana, and Washington, D.C. The worldwide death toll from the new coronavirus has surpassed 101,000 amid about 1.6 million cases and more than 372,000 recoveries, according to the Johns Hopkins University tally.

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