The World Health Organization (WHO) is working closely with global experts, governments and partners to rapidly expand scientific knowledge on this new virus, to track the spread and virulence of the virus and to provide advice to countries and individuals on measures to protect health and prevent the spread of this outbreak.
On the WHO website you can find information and guidance from WHO regarding the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) that was first reported from Wuhan, China, on 31 December 2019.
In addition, the learning team of the WHO Health Emergencies Program worked with technical experts to quickly develop and publish the online course on 26 January – 4 days before the 2019-nCoV outbreak was declared a public health emergency of international concern. Approximately 3000 new users have registered for the training every day since its launch, demonstrating the high level of interest in the virus among health professionals and the general public. Likewise, more than 200 000 people have viewed the introductory video to the course on YouTube. This video, which has more than 753 665 views, describes the novel Coronavirus and how to prevent a health emergency.
The free learning resource is available to anyone interested in novel coronavirus on WHO’s open learning platform for emergencies, OpenWHO.org. The platform was established 3 years ago with emergencies such as nCoV in mind, in which WHO would need to reach millions of people across the globe with real-time, accessible learning materials. The online training – entitled “Emerging respiratory viruses, including nCoV: methods for detection, prevention, response and control” – is currently being produced in all official UN languages and Portuguese.
For the latest information on the new coronavirus, visit the 2019-nCoV page.
References
- World Health Organization. Online training as a weapon to fight the new coronavirus. Published 7/02/2020. Available on https://www.who.int/news-room/detail/07-02-2020-online-training-as-a-weapon-to-fight-the-new-coronavirus
- https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus-2019
- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOV1aBVYKGA&feature=emb_logo
