Thousands of people have completed an hour-long online university programme aimed at helping control the spread of Covid-19. The free course offered at Mohammed Bin Rashid University of Medicine and Health Sciences provides training on how to break the chain of infection. Professor Nabil Zary, a director at MBRU, said the idea was to provide individuals and communities with useful, factual information. Anyone taking the course must answer multiple questions correctly in order to pass. “There have been so many conflicting reports in the media that it’s just turned into a competition to see who can shout the loudest,” Prof Zary said. “We thought it was important to be able to present the right information to people in a way they could understand. “The government and health authorities are doing a great job but we wanted to play our part by doing what we do best – education. "Let’s break the Covid-19 chain." As of April 1, 664 people in the UAE have tested positive for Covid-19, resulting in six deaths. Sixty one patients have recovered. Globally, there have been almost 850,000 cases with more than 42,000 fatalities. Around 165,000 patients have recovered. Professor Zary said almost 220,000 people had registered and successfully completed the MBRU course and that he was overwhelmed by the project’s success. The university asks that anyone completing the programme forwards it to friends and relatives so they can also take part. It is currently only available in English and Arabic but MBRU is working to translate it into other languages. “We are asking everyone who passes the course to share it with at least three people,” Prof Zary said. “The reason for this is because people with Covid-19, on average, infect two to three other people so we wanted to mirror that rate, but we wanted to infect them with knowledge. “There has been at least one person from each country in the world who has registered. “Considering we only started this a week ago, the response has been incredible. “It’s our way of making a contribution to the UAE’s efforts to help people prevent the further spread of Covid-19.” To take the course visit <a href="https://learn.mbru.ac.ae/courses/covid19">https://learn.mbru.ac.ae/courses/covid19</a>
