Google adds markup support for COVID-19 related posts | Added: 31, March 2020
The Google Webmasters team reports that the search engine is working on adding SpecialAnnouncement markup support for COVID-19 related posts. This markup is not yet supported as of now, but it can already be added to sites. SpecialAnnouncement markup can be used by any organizations that publish urgent messages on the epidemic, which "affect the schedule and other aspects of everyday life."
For instance, these could be: · Closing announcements (e.g., schools or subway);
· Quarantine recommendations;
· Messages on travel restrictions;
· Announcements on changing the format of the event (from offline to online);
· Messages about changing the working hours of outlets, etc.
Since Google has not yet implemented support for this markup, it is not clear how such messages will appear in the search results. We should recall that the Schema.org development team introduced new types of structured data, designed especially for marking up information related to COVID-19 in March. Bing introduced Special Announcements markup support last week. Note also, that earlier Google added new properties to the event markup documentation.