Get All The Correct COVID-19 Info Directly On Your WhatsApp: Here's How You Do It
While the social media and search engine majors are doing their bit to tackle the spread of misinformation around Coronavirus through their platforms, a major chunk of such fake news is spread by miscreants through personal messaging services like WhatsApp. Now the World Health Organisation has come up with a way to use the chat app for the exactly opposite purpose - informing people of the correct data and numbers around the COVID-19 outbreak.
WHO has launched a new service through which WhatsApp users will be able to get the exact data for the COVID-19 outbreak. An official channels has been launched by the agency that uses a WhatsApp bot to inform the users of the correct data.
Launched today, the service will provide users with the latest numbers of people infected with COVID-19 across the world. In addition, the service will provide tips on how to protect oneself as well as travel advice for people on the move. WHO has even made sure to include mythbusters in this service to let people know of any myths that they might be believing in for the COVID-19 outbreak.
To receive updates on #COVID19 from WHO add this number¡ª +41 79 893 18 92 to your contacts and send a @WhatsApp message. You¡¯ll automatically be registered to receive updates and also have an option to ask for more information as shown below. pic.twitter.com/WXaGd88AGf
¡ª WHO Uganda (@WHOUganda) March 20, 2020
Through the service, WHO will also provide the latest new articles around Coronavirus for a specific region and will allow the users to share the same with their peers as well.
How to use it?
Just like any other WhatsApp contact, users will first have to save the designated number on their smartphones. The number is - +41 79 893 18 92. Once saved, WhatsApp users can send a simple ¡°Hello¡± message to the number and they will receive a list of options to choose from. This list will include all the options mentioned above.
While WHO has its own website for sharing the correct numbers with the world, WhatsApp is considered to be the best source of communication across the people of the world. It is more direct and involves a one-to-one sharing of information with the people. Another big plus is that with this service, people will not have to believe any other misinformation that they come across through the platform and only stay informed with the correct data.
Image: WHO/ Twitter
As the human population across the globe faces self-quarantine, there are some practices that we all should follow in these difficult times. Apart from keeping our hands clean at all times, we should also take care of any surface that we come in contact with. A recent research around this explains the precautions to be taken for the same. You can read about all these precautions here.