8 October 2020 – On 5 October 2020, Dr Ahmed Al-Mandhari, WHO Regional Director for the Eastern Mediterranean, and Dr Maria Cristina Profili, WHO Representative in Jordan, opened the COVID-19 clinical management online training course, together with Dr Ghazi Sharkas, Director of the Primary Health Care Administration, on behalf of H.E the Minister of Health, and Professor Nathir Obeidat, University of Jordan, the main coordinator of the online training with the Ministry of Health and WHO.

The training course is designed for Jordan’s frontline clinicians and nurses managing COVID-19 cases in designated hospitals and comes as the country is responding to a resurge of COVID-19 cases.

The training will be conducted from 5 to 26 October 2020 and will include a series of 7 virtual sessions over a 1-month period. The sessions aim to enhance the capacity of the frontline health care workforce in working as a multidisciplinary team on the management of mild, moderate, severe and critical COVID-19 disease, based on WHO guidelines and evidence-based international standards. It is designed to share national and international clinical experiences and foster knowledge exchange and partnerships for strengthening clinical practices.

In his opening remarks, Dr Al-Mandhari acknowledged the efforts being made in Jordan to respond to COVID-19 and thanked the Government of Jordan, Royal Hashemite Court, Ministry of Health and the academic sector in the country for their ceaseless efforts in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic, in general, and to developing the online course, in particular.

“I highly appreciate the health care professionals who are doing their best at the frontline to save lives from COVID-19 and who have used their valuable time to participate in this important training” Dr Al-Mandhari said.

On his part, Dr Ghazi Sharkas acknowledged WHO’s efforts at the three levels of the Organization to support the Ministry of Health to respond to COVID-19, especially in building the capacity of health care workers.

“I would like to extend my thanks to all national and international experts who kindly agreed to share their wisdom and expertise during the sessions, and to the WHO country office in Jordan for their daily guidance in supporting Jordan for better health,” said Dr Sharkas.

“In order to maximize our efforts to support Jordan, WHO has worked across its three country, regional and headquarters levels as one WHO team to provide technical support to the Ministry of Health to develop this first pilot online course in the Region. We do hope that other countries will also benefit from this experience,” Dr Profili added.