Facebook Will Show Covid-19 Vaccination Schedule And Location

JAKARTA - Facebook added a new notification feature to make it easier for everyone to get vaccinated against COVID-19. This feature allows users to make vaccination appointments with health facilities.

"It will be at the COVID-19 Information Center, which we will show people directly on their News Feed," said Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Thursday, March 18.

Zuckerberg said that many people use Facebook to find out the latest information on the location and developments of the COVID-19 vaccination. For this reason, Facebook is working with health authorities and governments to help people get valid information about vaccinations.

Mark Zuckerberg will also expand the WhatsApp chatbot service to make it easier for people to register for vaccinations. More than 3 billion messages related to COVID have been sent by governments, non-profit organizations and international organizations to citizens via the official WhatsApp chatbots.

"They are our best hope to get through this virus and return to normal life. I'm looking forward to getting my (vaccine), and I hope you too," added Zuckerberg.

Last week, the city and province of Buenos Aires, Argentina announced that WhatsApp would become the official channel for sending notifications to citizens when it was their turn to receive the vaccine.

In Brazil, the WhatsApp helpline is used as an information and support channel for residents in Serrana, where health authorities are testing the country's first mass vaccination project.

In Indonesia, the Ministry of Health initiated Phase II of the WhatsApp vaccine registration helpline, expanding vaccine registrations from frontline workers to the elderly.

Governments and other health authorities, including South Africa and the World Health Organization (WHO), are starting to enter the most up-to-date vaccine information onto their helplines.

Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Facebook has partnered with health ministries and health-focused organizations in more than 170 countries by providing free advertising, enabling partners to share their own public health guidance on COVID-19 and information on vaccines.

For underserved countries and vulnerable populations such as ethnic minorities and refugees, Facebook also partners with expert local and international NGOs, such as the International Medical Corps, which provides customized COVID-19 information in local languages.

In addition, Facebook continues to work with international bodies such as the European Union and African Union to support their COVID-19 response. For example, Facebook has helped the European Parliament run multilingual ad campaigns in their 27 Member States, featuring short in-feed videos on Facebook and Instagram.