Chinese tech giant Baidu has made a maps app that shows the location of coronavirus patients

• Baidu has introduced a new "epidemic map" feature for its Map app to help users navigate the coronavirus outbreak in China, Abacus reports.
• The app shows the location of both confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients, as well as travel disruption caused by the various quarantines in force across China.
• The death toll for the coronavirus reached 638 on Thursday evening, the vast majority of the deaths have occurred in mainland China.
• Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories.

Chinese search engine giant Baidu has integrated the coronavirus outbreak into its Map app.

Chinese tech news site Abacus reported on Friday that Baidu had built a special "epidemic map" for its normal Map app. According to Abacus, the feature shows the location of both confirmed and suspected coronavirus patients in real time.

It is not clear from Abacus' report exactly what data Baidu collects to ascertain the locations of the patients, or how precise its location pins are. Business Insider was not immediately able to contact Baidu for comment.

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Abacus notes the new feature also shows epidemic check points and disruptions to traffic. China has put 16 cities on lockdown since the virus' outbreak, restricting the travel of an estimated 50 million people.

In China, where American tech companies including Google are absent from the app marketplace, Baidu is the dominant search engine and maps app. In its most recent quarterly filing the company reported 189 million active daily users.

As of Thursday evening per CBS the death toll for the coronavirus stood 638, only two of which were outside of mainland China.