San Francisco, May 2 (IANS): Facebook has rolled out a new 'Care' reaction on Facebook desktop and app to help people share their support during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The social media giant is gradually rolling out the care emoji to users. A number of people have already received the new emojis, however, for the majority of users, they will start appearing over the next few days.

The new reactions joins the classic thumbs up, heart, laugher, shock, sadness and anger options that have been available since reactions launched in 2015.

Fidji Simo, the head of the Facebook app, recently told USA TODAY the new reaction option is meant as a sign of caring and solidarity when commenting on a status, comment, photo or video.

"This idea of a hug reaction came back consistently as one of the emotions and feelings that were missing from reactions. So that's something that was always on our minds," the report quoted Simo as saying.

Meanwhile, on Messenger users will get a new pulsating heart reaction.

The company earlier stated that the new set of reactions have been designed to give users additional ways to display their support to those affected by the ongoing coronavirus crisis.