--- title: CDC 'Coronavirus Self-Checker' Helps Assess Need for Care description: The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has created a bot that acts as a triage system to help assess the severity of cases. canonical: https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/ author: Sanya Mansoor article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2020-03-22T16:25:20.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:52:15.183Z article:section: Health og:title: 'Coronavirus Self-Checker': A CDC Bot Named Clara Aims to Relieve Some Strain on Health Care Providers og:description: The bot intends to help people "make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care" og:url: https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt909c779d89b25b7c/698a0bdb8fd2eecbf93610d9/cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1024 og:image:height: 576 og:image:alt: CDC Headquarters og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: 'Coronavirus Self-Checker': A CDC Bot Named Clara Aims to Relieve Some Strain on Health Care Providers twitter:description: The bot intends to help people "make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care" twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt909c779d89b25b7c/698a0bdb8fd2eecbf93610d9/cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1024&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # 'Coronavirus Self-Checker': A CDC Bot Named Clara Aims to Relieve Some Strain on Health Care Providers > Sponsored content. 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Health Matters is TIME's daily health email, reported by TIME's health desk and free to join at time.com/newsletters. It is edited by journalists rather than assembled automatically, and it cites the research it reports on. #### Is Health Matters free? Yes. Health Matters is a free daily newsletter from TIME, available at time.com/newsletters. #### Who reads TIME's Health Matters newsletter? Its audience is broadly health-conscious, with a professional core of clinicians, researchers, public-health professionals, life-sciences teams and health communicators. ## Video: "I Was Winded Putting Dishes in the Dishwasher": NYC Man Speaks About His COVID-19 Diagnosis [Watch (HLS stream): "I Was Winded Putting Dishes in the Dishwasher": NYC Man Speaks About His COVID-19 Diagnosis](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VMz7DXU2.m3u8) (3:30)  _Published 2020-03-19. TIME spoke with Rich Bahrenburg about his COVID-19 symptoms, testing experience and time spent in isolation._  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Mar 22, 2020 4:25 PM UTC  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on March 14, 2020. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia on March 14, 2020. Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg—Getty Images  by [Sanya Mansoor](https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/)  ## Sanya Mansoor Mar 22, 2020 4:25 PM UTC Amid increasing demand for coronavirus testing and an[ inability for health care providers to test everyone who wants a COVID-19 test](https://time.com/5804335/coronavirus-hospitals-shortages/), the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has come up with a bot that acts as a triage system to help assess the severity of cases. The purpose of the “[coronavirus self-checker,](https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/symptoms-testing/symptoms.html)” a bot named Clara, is to help those currently in the U.S. “make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care,” the CDC says on its website. It is not, however, intended for “the diagnosis or treatment of disease or other conditions, including COVID-19,” the CDC notes. The bot guides users through a series of questions, which may include what kinds of symptoms the possibly infected person is displaying, as well as whether they have any pre-existing medical conditions and may have come in contact with someone diagnosed with COVID-19\. Depending on the answers, Clara could direct users to seek “urgent medical attention” and “go to the Emergency Department” or “stay home and take care of yourself” and “call your provider if you get worse.” The bot says it was “made possible through a partnership with the CDC Foundation and is enabled by Microsoft’s Azure platform.” Medical advice about [who should be tested](https://time.com/5801790/coronavirus-testing-us/) continues to change, typically prioritizing those with the most severe symptoms. Although COVID-19 symptoms can include a fever and a cough, those symptoms alone will not necessarily mean an individual can get tested. There are more than 26,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. as of Sunday morning, according to a[ virus tracker from Johns Hopkins University](https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html). [Every U.S. state](https://time.com/5805097/west-virginia-covid-19-testing/) has now reported at least one confirmed case of COVID-19. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/"},"headline":"'Coronavirus Self-Checker': A CDC Bot Named Clara Aims to Relieve Some Strain on Health Care Providers","datePublished":"2020-03-22T16:25:20.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:52:15.183Z","description":"The bot intends to help people \"make decisions about seeking appropriate medical care\"","url":"https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/","keywords":["COVID-19"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt909c779d89b25b7c/698a0bdb8fd2eecbf93610d9/cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Sanya Mansoor","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/sanya-mansoor/"}],"articleSection":"Health","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt909c779d89b25b7c/698a0bdb8fd2eecbf93610d9/cdc.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"CDC Headquarters","caption":"CDC Headquarters","creditText":"Elijah Nouvelage/Bloomberg—Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/health/","name":"Health"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/covid-19/","name":"COVID-19"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/","name":"'Coronavirus Self-Checker': A CDC Bot Named Clara Aims to Relieve Some Strain on Health Care Providers"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"\"I Was Winded Putting Dishes in the Dishwasher\": NYC Man Speaks About His COVID-19 Diagnosis","description":"TIME spoke with Rich Bahrenburg about his COVID-19 symptoms, testing experience and time spent in isolation.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/VMz7DXU2/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2020-03-19T15:18:40.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/VMz7DXU2.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/","duration":"PT3M30S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/5807914/cdc-bot-coronavirus/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```