As the first line of healthcare professionals are engaged in the fight against coronavirus, the Centre, on April 7, launched an online course to train the second line of health workers to replace the frontline warriors as well as to tackle exponential increase in cases.

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The Centre has launched the iGOT (Integrated Govt Online Training) course for doctors, nurses, para-medics, hygiene workers, technicians, auxiliary nursing, midwives, state government officers, civil defence officials and various police organisations.

The National Cadet Corps (NCC), the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan (NYKS), the National Service Scheme (NSS), the Indian Red Cross Society (IRCS), the Bharat Scouts and Guides (BSG) volunteers as well as others will be trained with the help of online course.

The online course has self-learning guide containing the latest preventive techniques for frontline COVID-19 warriors in building capabilities to fight the pandemic that has claimed 117 lives and afflicted over 4,000 across India.

The Ministry of Personnel in an office memorandum called for spreading of information about the online course so that various organisations get "encouraged to get on board the iGOT platform and undergo training".

To train healthcare workers, iGOT platform's launch has been fast-forwarded, and using the MoHRD DIKSHA as a host it has been retro-fitted for the purpose requested by the Empowered Group of Officers, led by Aruna Panda.

Appreciating the frontline health workers efforts, it said a large force would be needed to replace the first line and to tackle the geometric increase of COVID-19 cases in the subsequent stages of the pandemic.