Google sister company Verily launched a website late on Sunday that invites adults in northern California to answer questions about their recent health and travel that could result in their getting a free coronavirus test.

Verily, in collaboration with the California Governor’s office, federal, state and local public health authorities, launched pilot intended to expand access to COVID-19 risk screening and testing for high risk individuals at Bay Area locations.

A coalition of scientists, public health officials, and citizens across the US is uniting in the fight to contain the COVID-19 pandemic. Verily is helping to establish testing sites in the Bay Area and an online tool to increase risk screening and testing for people at high risk of COVID-19. The tool will triage people who are concerned about their COVID-19 risk into testing sites based on guidance from public health officials and test availability.

Californians are able to take an online COVID-19 screener survey through Project Baseline. People who meet eligibility and requirements for testing are directed to mobile testing sites based on capacity, where they complete a nasal swab test. Once tested, individuals will be informed of their COVID-19 test results within a few days. To protect the most vulnerable, the COVID-19 testing pilot program will begin by testing the highest risk individuals at select sites in the San Francisco Bay Area, where there is a significant volume of known cases. As more testing kits and sites become available, Verily plans to scale the capacity.

The current testing sites are located in Santa Clara County and San Mateo County.

"Ultimately, our goal is to help local authorities expand testing access in California as the need continues to increase. The program is in its early stages, and we will take the time to assess operations at pilot sites in the Bay Area before rolling out to additional sites. We are working closely with Governor Newsom’s office, federal authorities and local public health authorities to ensure we have the right capabilities in place to help more people over the coming weeks," Verily said.

Launched in 2017 as an effort to map human health, Project Baseline is focused on advancing science and bridging the gap between clinical research and clinical care. The Baseline Platform delivers the core technology infrastructure to enable decentralized screening and support broader accessibility. The Baseline Platform securely collects and stores health information and is compliant with federal and state regulations governing the collection and use of an individual's data.

Verily says it is asking people to create a Google Account or connect their existing Google Account to participate in the program. "This will enable us to collect your answers to the screening survey, contact you to schedule testing, and deliver results back to you," according to the company.

Verily said people’s survey responses would be kept in an encrypted Google database, access to which is restricted and monitored. The data would be shared with healthcare authorities but would never be “joined with your data stored in Google products without your explicit permission,” Verily said.

In addition, Verily said user-submitted data would be used for research purposes only with permission, though it may ask for that permission in the future.