Verily’s coronavirus screening site is already out of testing appointments – TechCrunch

Last night, slightly ahead of schedule, Verily launched its much-discussed coronavirus screening site. On the site, which is only available in parts of the Bay Area, users can describe their symptoms and Verily will then direct them to a testing site if necessary. After only a few hours online, though, the site has already run out of appointments.

“Appointments will continue to expand through this program as we scale capacity in the near future. Please check back later,” the site now says, but only after you’ve gone through most of the questionnaire.

It’s obviously not Verily’s fault that the state’s testing sites are at capacity and if anything, this proves the need for a service like this on a national scale.

Originally, in a press conference on Friday, President Trump said a site Google was working on was going to be the core feature of a national testing strategy. That story changed quite a bit over the weekend as Google and Verily clarified their efforts and it became clear that the White House overpromised, but Verily then launched its pilot site ahead of schedule on Sunday night.

We have asked Verily for more information and will update this post once we hear more.