With the World Health Organization officially designating COVID-19 as a pandemic and cases rising in California and around the country, fear and anxiety among California residents may rise. It is important for people to have the right information to keep themselves and their communities safe. During this growing crisis, Facebook announced the expansion of the Local Alerts tool to state and local health departments, including in California, to get COVID-19 information to citizens when they need it most.
Facebook Local Alerts is a tool that state and local governments, law enforcement, and now public health agencies can utilize to communicate important information quickly to their communities. The tool has been used to communicate everything from weather advisories, to road closures, to missing persons and community safety threats. Now, the tool can be utilized by state and local health agencies to communicate information relating to COVID-19. Government health agencies should be the source of truth for the American public on COVID-19 information.
When these agencies mark posts as “Local Alerts,” people living within that geographical area will receive push notifications alerting them to the post, greatly extending the reach. As health agencies in California add this feature to their communications toolkits, Facebook will be providing training and resources to these agencies so they can get up and running.