In its move to save the world from the Covid-19 pandemic, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has launched the WHO Academy app and the WHO Info app to support the health workers and the general public, respectively.
The WHO Academy, the Health organisation's lifelong learning centre has launched the apps on Thursday, May 14. The mobile app is designed to enable health workers to expand their life-saving skills to battle the Covid-19 pandemic by providing them with mobile access to a wealth of Covid knowledge resources, developed by WHO.
WHO Academy and the WHO Info apps
The app's services include up-to-the-minute guidance, tools, training, and virtual workshops that will help the medical workers take care of the patients affected by the deadly virus while protecting themselves.
According to Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, WHO Director-General, "With this new mobile app, the WHO is putting the power of learning and knowledge-sharing directly into the hands of health workers everywhere."
The app is built around the needs expressed by 20,000 global health workers in a WHO Academy survey conducted in March of 2020 mentioned WHO on the app's launching.
In its survey, the Organisation found that two-thirds of its respondents feel the need of more preparations, particularly in infection prevention and control, case management, use of personal protective equipment and occupational safety, along with risk communication and community engagement.
In addition to this, a major proportion of the respondents agreed that virtual learning on demand would be helpful in preparing for the coronavirus threats and challenges.
WHO Academy in 2021
The establishment of the WHO Academy, based in Lyon, France, is planned for launch in May 2021. This will help in applying the latest technologies and adult learning science to meet the learning needs of millions of health workers, policy makers, and WHO staff across the globe.
The WHO also stated that the WHO Info app, on the other hand, will keep the general public updated on the latest WHO initiatives, partnerships, and to up-to-date information on its race to find medicines and vaccines for eradicating the pandemic.
With the official WHO Covid-19 data streams, the app will keep updating the number of coronavirus patients worldwide, organized by country, and by timelines.
The app available in Arabic Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish can be easily downloaded from both the Apple App Store and Google Play Store.
