The coronavirus pandemic , which began in China late last year and has spread across the globe since February, has affected governments and businesses, with more than 600,000 cases worldwide
For now, the only way to deal with it is to stay home to reduce the spread of the disease and avoid the collapse of the health system. Many large companies around the world have undertaken to help countries that are severely affected by the virus. One of them is Google, which announced that it will allocate more than 800 million to support small and medium-sized businesses, health organizations and governments, as well as health workers who are on the front lines of this pandemic.
How Google's $800 million will be spent
- $250 million will be allocated for promotional purposes so that the World Health Organization (WHO) and more than 100 government agencies can provide important information on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other measures to help local communities.
- Google is providing $340 million in ad credits to small and medium-sized business accounts that were active in the past year. The credits will be available for use through the end of this year.
- $200 million in investments to support NGOs and financial institutions around the world. The company is partnering with the Network in the US to fill the financing gaps for people and communities not served by mainstream financial institutions.
- $20 million worth of Google Cloud credits for academic institutions and scientists researching ways to combat COVID-19.
- Immediate financial support to increase production capacity for personal protective equipment. The company is partnering with Magic Glove & Safety to enable the production of 2 to 3 million face masks in the coming weeks. These masks will be provided to the CDC Foundation. In addition, Alphabet employees from Google, Verily and X will contribute technology, supply chain and healthcare expertise to help produce ventilators.
Google expects this effort to be a significant help in the fight against the pandemic. In addition, the company is increasing the donation amount for each employee. This means that the company's employees can now give $20,000 to organizations in their communities.
