Cognizant collaborates with Alphabet-owned Verily to facilitate Covid-19 testing across US

MUMBAI: Cognizant is collaborating with Verily Life Sciences, an Alphabet owned health and life sciences company to facilitate COVID-19 testing across the United States.

Cognizant said it is providing a team of its life sciences experts to support Verily’s program to increase access to individuals who need to schedule COVID-19 tests. The company said that this is an effort by it to support communities by addressing the immediate and long-term impacts of the virus. It builds on to the its recent pledge to contribute $10 million toward the pandemic, it said.

“Cognizant’s expertise in life sciences is critical for scaling our efforts to increase COVID-19 testing, and we are excited to collaborate with them to address this global pandemic,” said Ashraf Hanna, Verily’s Chief Operations Officer. “Cognizant’s ability to support our technology with a knowledgeable team of representatives helps those seeking testing easily and effectively use our system to schedule COVID-19 tests and receive their results, so that those testing positive can take precautions to stem the spread of the virus.”

The Google parent owned company, Verily began a ‘Baseline COVID-19 Testing Program’ earlier this year in collaboration with federal, state and local government health authorities, as well as private health organizations to expand access to testing in areas with high volumes of known cases. The program is in operation at over 140 testing sites across 13 states and has supported the US administration with 284,000 COVID-19 tests.

“Verily has demonstrated a monumental effort to increase access to testing and provide important information to individuals and public health authorities on COVID-19. Cognizant is likewise ardent in our promise to help subdue the impact of this pandemic. Through our exceptional process expertise and technology experience in life sciences, we remain committed now and in the future as Cognizant and Verily embark on this meaningful collaboration,” said Srinivas Shankar, Senior Vice President and Global Head for Cognizant's Life Sciences business.