The JHSPH (John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) has recently launched a free course on COVID-19 Contact Tracing, via training portal Coursera. The course will help expand the contact tracing capacity of the states by training several contact tracers.

This recent launch will significantly meet the recommendation of nearly 100,000 additional contact tracers in the United States, which was suggested to rapidly curb the spread of coronavirus. The course was created with Bloomberg Philanthropies’ support. It teaches the contact tracing fundamentals, including ethical considerations, communication skills, interview strategies & simulations, and provides necessary information about coronavirus. People who wish to assume the contact tracer role in New York must take the 5-hour course and pass the examination at the end.

The JHSPH is highly encouraged by the response of nearly 150,000 learners who have enrolled in just a week for the course. With more than 22,000 learners who have completed the course, around 2,500 prospective contact tracers are currently available who could be employed in New York. Contact tracing will offer alternative employment benefits to those who are impacted by the economic crisis while fulfilling the urgent need of catering to the public health. It is working on making the program available to more U.S. states as well as countries across the globe.

According to Dr. Emily Gurley, JHSPH’s infectious disease epidemiologist and lead course instructor, the school has expressed its elation at being able to develop the course and make it available among people who wish to contribute to and serve the critical & urgent public health need. The course will also cater to people who wish to gain knowledge about contact tracing.

The vision of Coursera is to develop a universal access to the best learning in the world and provide a timely solution to fight major challenges at hand. The training platform is thrilled to partner with Johns Hopkins University to offer key training to help develop informed contact tracer workforce domestically and globally.

Source credit:https://indiaeducationdiary.in/johns-hopkins-trains-22000-contact-tracers-on-coursera-in-the-first-week-jeff-maggioncalda-ceo-coursera/