1,000 Google Employees Volunteer To Help Expand Sister Company's Coronavirus Testing Program

A thousand Google LLC employees have volunteered to help with the novel coronavirus triage testing program developed by fellow Alphabet Inc. GOOGL GOOG subsidiary Verily.

What Happened

"People across Alphabet are volunteering time [and] I've never seen so much commitment to do the right thing," Verily chief medical and scientific officer Jessica Mega told CNBC in a telephonic interview.

Verily had screened more than 20,000 California residents and tested more than 1,200 as of Wednesday with the help of the increased manpower, Mega said.

The Verily triage program launched on March 15 in the Santa Clara and San Mateo counties of California. Earlier this week, it expanded the program to Riverside and Sacramento counties.

Verily also launched a video on Thursday detailing how the testing works.

Why It Matters

Google had launched a separate coronavirus information website earlier this month.

A number of other companies, including Apple Inc. AAPL, Microsoft Corporation MSFT, the Space Exploration Company, and Tesla Inc. TSLA have stepped in to participate in the efforts against the pandemic.

Apple has said that it would donate 10 million masks to healthcare workers to protect them against the deadly virus. Tesla is making ventilators, while the other company led by Elon Musk, SpaceX, is developing face shields and protective suits.

The United States now has the world's highest number of confirmed coronavirus cases at 85,991, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Price Action

Alphabet Class A shares closed 5.65% higher at $1,162.92 and traded slightly higher in the after-hours session at $1,163. Class C shares closed 5.38% higher at $1,161.75 and traded nearly 0.2% lower in the after-hours at $1,159.55.

Photo Credit: Courtesy of Verily.