Alexa can now locate coronavirus vaccination and testing centers; here's how it works

In a remarkable technological advancement, Amazon’s voice assistant Alexa has now got the ability to detect nearby vaccination sites and help connect users with those websites to check availability of jabs or schedule an appointment.  To initiate the feature, the user just needs to make the voice command “Alexa, where can I get a COVID vaccine?” Following this, a list of all nearby vaccination sites will be listed out.

"Customers have continuously turned to Alexa for accurate and timely information about COVID-19. In fact, in the last year, Alexa has answered tens of millions of questions related to COVID-19 from customers around the world. To ensure Alexa always has the information customers need, we worked quickly to grow Alexa’s knowledge about COVID-19,' a statement on the website read. 

With global COVID caseload surging past 145,369,441 with over 3,085,954 fatalities, the Jeff Bezos led company announced that Alexa could not only help customers access information about COVID-19 vaccines but also connect them to vaccination sites. It is deemed that this feature would especially be beneficial to the elderly population or those less versed with online portals as they could now obtain information just by making a voice command.

Testing centers information, phone calls 

In addendum to ironing out information related to vaccination sites, the Amazon AI gadget can also lay out details about nearby testing sites. All the user has to do is to say, “Alexa, where can I get tested for COVID-19?” to hear a list of nearby testing centers. They can get further information about test locations by saying, “Alexa, call the first one,” to call the phone number provided for the location.

Amazon Alexa, also known simply as Alexa, is a virtual assistant AI technology that is developed by Amazon. Apple has Siri. Google Home has the Google Assistant. For Amazon, the name “Alexa” was chosen because the name “Alexa” goes a long way back to the Library of Alexandria, which intended to collect all of the knowledge in the world, which is what Amazon is attempting to do.

Late last year, Amazon announced that Alexa iwas now made in Hindi for smartphone users in India. Amazon previously shared that the company added 60 new features to the app since the launch of Hindi support to Alexa last year. Six new Alexa original songs and poems with 20 new stories are now a part of its database.

Image Credits: Amazon.com