Google is building a website to help screen Americans for the coronavirus, President Donald Trump announced at a press conference on Friday.

There are 1,700 engineers working on the project, which will launch on Sunday.

However, Trump's descriptions of the project appear to have been misleading: Google says that it will be developed by sister company Verily, not Google itself, and that it will only be available in the San Francisco Bay Area for an initial testing period.

A Verily spokesperson told the Verge that the site was originally meant for healthcare professionals, but "now that it has been announced the way it was, however, anybody will be able to visit it."

The US government is preparing to roll out a new drive-thru testing process in partnership with private companies.

Google is building a website to help screen Americans for the coronavirus and then direct them to testing sites if necessary, President Donald Trump said.

At a press conference at the White House on Friday, Trump said the California-based search-engine giant has 1,700 engineers at work to build a website that people concerned they may have COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, will be able to visit.

Users will be directed to fill out a questionnaire, including detailing any symptoms, and if deemed necessary, they will be directed to a nearby drive-thru test site in a network that the US government is preparing to roll out across the country.

However, subsequent statements from Google indicate Trump's descriptions of the site were misleading. The product is being developed by Verily — a sister company of Google, that sits under their shared parent company Alphabet — instead of Google itself. And it will only be available in the San Francisco Bay Area, at least initially.

"Verily is developing a tool to help triage individuals for COVID-19 testing. We are in the early stages of development, and planning to roll testing out in the Bay Area, with the hope of expanding more broadly over time," a spokesperson told Business Insider. "We appreciate the support of government officials and industry partners and thank the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort."

Additionally, The Verge spoke to Verily comms lead Carolyn Wang, who said the tool had been intended only as a tool for healthcare professionals. "Now that it has been announced the way it was, however, anybody will be able to visit it, she said," The Verge's reporting said.

Trump has declared a national emergency over the coronavirus outbreak, which has sickened more than 128,000 people and killed more than 4,700 globally, and is now present in at least 46 US states.

Google thanked government officials, industry partners, and "the Google engineers who have volunteered to be part of this effort," it said in a follow-up tweet about the Verily project.

The coronavirus pandemic has caused chaos around the world, forcing entire countries to go on lockdown, prompting the cancellation of numerous major events and sporting events and disrupting businesses' operations. Google itself has asked its workers in the US and in international offices throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa to work at home in order to prevent the spread of the disease.