*** This page was last updated on 31st October 2023 ***
UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) has produced this page to help those working on the current coronavirus outbreak, to identify and access emerging evidence as it is published.
Most of the resources are freely accessible but some may ask for an OpenAthens sign in. It is therefore important that your OpenAthens details are up-to-date. You can find more information on our OpenAthens information page. You can find the OpenAthens sign in page here. UKHSA staff unable to access an article or resource can email libraries@ukhsa.gov.uk for assistance. Non-UKHSA staff are advised to contact their local health librarian for support if necessary. You can search for the details of your local health librarian at the Health Libraries and Information Services Directory (HLISD) page.
We do not accept responsibility for the availability, reliability or content of the items included, and do not necessarily endorse the views expressed within them.
To navigate this page, click on the subject heading boxes to view the content within. Text that is underlined and blue is a hyperlink to a website or resource.
During the outbreak, there were several ways to keep up to date with the latest advice, guidance, and research about COVID-19. Most of these, with the exception of the Long-COVID-19 Research Alert, (available on our Current Awareness Products page), have been discontinued, but are available on request. Please contact libraries@ukhsa.gov.uk
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- Official daily government COVID-19 update
- UKHSA COVID-19 Rapid Reviews
- Long-COVID Research Alert
- UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services COVID-19 Alert (discontinued)
- UKHSA COVID-19 Literature Digest (discontinued)
- UKHSA Behavioural Science Reference Cell weekly literature report (discontinued)
- UKHSA Knowledge and Library Service Care Homes evidence digest (discontinued)
- Retraction Watch
1. Official daily government COVID-19 update
Daily updates about the status of COVID-19 in the UK published by the UK Health Security Agency and the Department of Health and Social Care. This is the official UK government website for data and insights on coronavirus (COVID-19).
The UK Health Security Agency produces regular updates about SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants under investigation in England.
2. UKHSA COVID-19 Rapid Reviews
Please note: the PHE/UKHSA COVID-19 rapid evidence service no longer exists.
The evidence reviews conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic by the COVID-19 rapid evidence service were initially published on the UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services website. These reviews have now been relocated to the UKHSA Evidence reviews webpage on GOV.UK. The reviews have been made more accessible, so there may have been changes to their format and presentation, but the content has not changed.
3. Long-COVID Research Alert - UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services
The UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services was been producing a weekly Long-COVID Research Alert, each Wednesday morning since December 2021, and recent issues are available, in PDF format, on our current awareness page. Older issues are available on request from libraries@ukhsa.gov.uk
4. COVID-19 Alert - UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services (discontinued)
The UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services produced a daily alert containing links to research and news on the latest coronavirus outbreak.
5. UKHSA COVID-19 Literature Digest (discontinued)
The COVID-19 Literature Digest was published between February 2020 and March 2022, in order to support the UKHSA’s pandemic response. Initially, the Digest was essential to track the new and emerging evidence on COVID-19, but the evidence base has increased substantially over this 2 year period and at the peak of the outbreak more than 2000 research articles were screened every week. As the evidence on COVID-19 reached a more steady state, the decision was taken to discontinue the COVID-19 Literature Digest. In 2022, the Literature Digest Team presented a poster at the European Association of Health Information and Libraries conference, about the approach taken to produce this regular digest, and you can view the PDF version of this poster via this link.
Please note that preprints were included in the Digest. These are preliminary reports of work that have NOT been peer-reviewed. They should not be relied on to guide clinical practice or health-related behaviour and should NOT be reported in news media as established information. The evidence was organised into 9 themes (serology and immunology, vaccine development, diagnostics, genomics, epidemiology and clinical, transmission, infection control, treatment, and modelling).
6. UKHSA Behavioural Science and Insights Unit Literature Report (discontinued)
The UKHSA Behavioural Science and Insights Unit produced a weekly literature report capturing a range of COVID-19-related work in the field of behavioural science.
7. UKHSA Knowledge and Library Service Care Homes Evidence Digest (discontinued)
This weekly digest contained a selection of evidence published in the preceding 7 days, in relation to the prevention and control of COVID-19 in home care/care home settings. A number of Covid-19 review repositories, an existing UKHSA Covid-19 evidence digest, Ovid Medline and Embase, Social Care Online, medRxiv (pre-print server) and various websites are searched. Back issues are available on request from libraries@ukhsa.gov.uk
8. Retraction Watch
The Retraction Watch website tracks retractions of research papers about COVID-19, and is updated as needed.
UK Government
In December 2022, the Department of Health and Social Care published this "Technical report on the COVID-19 pandemic in the UK". The report has been written for a specific audience: future UK Chief Medical Officers (CMOs), Government Chief Scientific Advisers (GCSAs), National Medical Directors and UK public health leaders facing a new pandemic or major epidemic in the UK. This is not a narrative of the pandemic or an exploration of the decisions made. Rather, it covers some technical aspects of interest primarily to our scientific, public health and clinical successors.
The Covid Report browser aims to make it easier to find reports and meeting minutes informing the UK Government's COVID-19 policy.
The Government has published a roadmap for how and when the UK will adjust its response to the COVID-19 crisis.
The Wider impacts of COVID-19 on Health (WICH) national monitoring tool brings together metrics to assess the wider impacts of COVID-19 on health.
UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), formerly Public Health England (PHE), has produced a range of supporting materials about COVID-19 for health and social care settings, other non-clinical settings, and for general public health professionals. These materials include:
COVID-19 Toxicovigilance and Chemical Surveillance Summary Report
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA), formerly PHE, is undertaking a regular analysis of their chemical incident data and UK poisoning data provided by the National Poisons Information Service (NPIS), to evaluate whether there are any potential public health risks related to toxic substances as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The analyses are published here:
Guidance from UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)
NHS coronavirus guidance for clinicians and managers
This guidance contains information for Primary care, Secondary care and Community health, social care, mental health trusts and ambulance services.
Guiding principles for effective management of COVID-19 at a local level
This document, published by the Association of Directors of Public Health, is intended to outline principles for the design of COVID-19 Local Outbreak Plans. They are intended to: build on existing plans to manage outbreaks in specific settings, ensure the challenges of COVID-19 are understood, consider the impact on local communities and ensure the wider system capacity supports Directors of Public Health.
Local council information and support
The Local Government Association site contains useful information for councils on novel coronavirus (COVID-19). This includes a selection of up to date, informative case studies that aim to help local authorities as they navigate the Coronavirus pandemic.
Guidance for health visitors
The Institute of Health Visiting has produced this guidance, to help health visitors supporting new parents and their children.
Faculty of Occupational Medicine
The Faculty of Occupational Medicine is a charity committed to improving health at work, and they have created COVID-related guidance, including guidance for healthcare professionals on return to work for patients with long-COVID.
Coronavirus (COVID-19) infection and pregnancy
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists (RCOG) has published guidance for healthcare professionals on coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in pregnancy, published by the RCOG, Royal College of Midwives, Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health, Public Health England and Health Protection Scotland.
Centre of Evidence Based Dermatology Coronavirus Dermatology Resource
This is a regularly updated collection of guidelines, web resources and journal articles on coronavirus relevant to skin diseases and dermatology. As of March 2021, this resource is no longer updated.
Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE)
SAGE provides scientific and technical advice to support government decision-makers during emergencies.
Health Education England
Up-to-date guidance and information from Health Education England (HEE), NHS England and NHS Improvement as well as the government to help health professionals, HEE staff and the public respond to coronavirus (COVID-19).
The Health Foundation
The Health Foundation has created a regularly updated COVID-19 policy tracker, documenting national government and health and social care system responses to COVID-19 in England, and how they change over time.
This section contains real-world data and guidance about the COVID-19 vaccines, information on vaccines in development, links to the published study results relating to the COVID-19 vaccine trials, information in other languages, and guidance about vaccine hesitancy.
Real world data
The UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) is monitoring the effectiveness of the coronavirus (COVID-19) vaccines in the real world as set out in the COVID-19 vaccine surveillance strategy and has published reports on the impact of the COVID-19 vaccines on:
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- infection (symptomatic or asymptomatic)
Guidance
PHE monitoring of the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccination: Data on the real-world efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccines
Public Health England, 22nd February 2021
COVID-19: the green book, chapter 14a
Updated 11 December 2020 by Public Health England, this chapter includes:
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- information on the COVID-19 vaccines
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- the dosage and schedule for the UK
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- recommendations for the use of the vaccine.
This is provisional guidance subject to MHRA approval of each vaccine.
National protocol for COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant])
This protocol was published on 10 January 2021, by Public Health England. It is for the administration of COVID-19 Vaccine AstraZeneca (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]) to individuals in accordance with the national COVID-19 vaccination programme.
Vaccine effectiveness
These papers report on the effectiveness of vaccines, particularly with regards to the variants:
PREPRINT: Effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines against the Omicron (B.1.1.529) variant of concern (opens as a PDF)
Andrews N, et al.
UK Health Security Agency
December 2021
What is the efficacy and effectiveness of available COVID-19 vaccines for variants of concern? (opens as a PDF)
COVID-19 Living Evidence Synthesis #6
COVID-19 Evidence Network, McMaster University
December 2021
Vaccines in development
The National Institute for Health Research provides information about ongoing coronavirus vaccine research.
Published vaccine trial results
This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of vaccine research, but a collection of the published trial results. Please contact Covid19.Dailyalerts@ukhsa.gov.uk if you think a vital paper is missing.
BNT162b2 mRNA COVID-19 vaccine (Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine)
Effectiveness of BNT162b2 mRNA Vaccine Against Infection and COVID-19 Vaccine Coverage in Healthcare Workers in England, Multicentre Prospective Cohort Study (the SIREN Study)
The SIREN Study Group
Preprints with the Lancet, 22nd February 2021
Safety and efficacy of the BNT162b2 mRNA Covid-19 vaccine
Polack FP, Thomas SJ, Kitchin N, Absalon J, Gurtman A, Lockhart S, Perez JL, Perez Marc G, Moreira ED, Zerbini C, Bailey R, Swanson KA
The New England Journal of Medicine, 2020, December 10
Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee Meeting (opens as a PDF)
FDA Briefing Document: Pfizer-BioNTech COVID-19 vaccine
US Food and Drug Administration
December 10, 2020
ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) (Oxford vaccine)
Interim recommendations for use of the AZD1222 (ChAdOx1-S [recombinant]) vaccine against COVID-19 developed by Oxford University and AstraZeneca: Interim results
World Health Organization, 10 February 2021
Safety and efficacy of the ChAdOx1 nCoV-19 vaccine (AZD1222) against SARS-CoV-2: an interim analysis of four randomised controlled trials in Brazil, South Africa, and the UK
Voysey M, Costa Clemens SA, Madhi SA, Weckx LY, Folegatti PM, Aley PK, et al.
The Lancet, 2020, December 08
mRNA-1273 COVID-19 vaccine (Moderna vaccine)
Efficacy and safety of the mRNA-1273 SARS-CoV-2 vaccine
Baden LR, El Sahly HM, Essink B, Kotloff K, Frey S, Novak R, et al.
New England Journal of Medicine, 2020, December 30
Safety and immunogenicity of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-1273 vaccine in older adults
Anderson EJ, Rouphael NG, Widge AT, Jackson LA, Roberts PC, Makhene M, et al.
New England Journal of Medicine, 2020, December 17
An mRNA Vaccine against SARS-CoV-2 — preliminary report
Jackson LA, Anderson EJ, Rouphael NG, Roberts PC, Makhene M, Coler RN, et al.
New England Journal of Medicine, 2020, November
Ad26.COV2.S vaccine (Johnson & Johnson)
Interim results of a phase 1–2a trial of Ad26.COV2.S Covid-19 vaccine
Sadoff J, Le Gars M, Shukarev G, Heerwegh D, Truyers C, et al.
New England Journal of Medicine, 2021, January 13
Gam-COVID-Vac (Sputnik V)
Safety and efficacy of an rAd26 and rAd5 vector-based heterologous prime-boost COVID-19 vaccine: an interim analysis of a randomised controlled phase 3 trial in Russia
Logunov DY, Dolzhikova IV, Shcheblyakov DV, Tukhvatulin AI, Zubkova, OV, et al.
Lancet, 2021. February 02
Vaccine boosters
Interim public health considerations for the provision of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses
This document, published by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control, summarises the most recent evidence regarding vaccine effectiveness against symptomatic and asymptomatic infection due to the circulating variants and regarding duration of immunity. Considerations around the implementation of additional COVID-19 vaccine doses will also be discussed. This document does not aim to provide recommendations about the administration of additional doses of COVID-19 vaccines but summarises the current evidence and outlines options for consideration by public health authorities.
COVID behaviours
COVID Behaviors Dashboard
Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs’ COVID Behaviors Dashboard presents data from a global survey of knowledge, attitudes and practices around COVID-19. This analysis is generated from the Delphi Group at Carnegie Mellon University COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey and University of Maryland Social Data Science Center COVID-19 Trends and Impact Survey (CTIS), in collaboration with Facebook.
Managing vaccine misinformation
The COVID-19 Vaccine Communication: A practical guide for improving vaccine communication and fighting misinformation
by Lewandowsky S, Cook J, Schmid P, Holford DL, Finn A, et al.
This handbook is for journalists, doctors, nurses, policy makers, researchers, teachers, students, parents – it’s for everyone who wants to know more about:
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- how to talk to others about them,
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- how to challenge misinformation about the vaccines.
Vaccine information in other languages
The UK Health Security Agency, formerly Public Health England, produces a number of posters and leaflets about the COVID-19 vaccine in a number of different languages.
Public Health Scotland has produced a leaflet called 'COVID-19 vaccine information for adults'.
The British Islamic Medical Association have resources on their website, including position statements on the Oxford AstraZeneca and Pfizer vaccines.
Vaccine hesitancy
The NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre's Oxford Precision Psychiatry Lab has created a vaccine uptake and vaccine hesitancy page to answer questions, and provide links to guidance where available.
THE FRAMEWORK IS A DISCUSSION DOCUMENT ONLY, AND NOT GOVERNMENT POLICY
The public health strategic framework for COVID-19:
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- is a resource for others developing strategies and action plans related to COVID-19 and the subsequent socioeconomic recovery;
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- sets out the public health priorities for managing the COVID pandemic in different scenarios;
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- brings together national, regional, and local public health expertise and experience to summarise key elements of public health policy that can help to manage and recover from the pandemic. It is based on public health expert consensus view and is regularly updated as circumstances and evidence change;
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- represents policies and approaches with the aim of improving public health and mitigating the impact of COVID on inequalities. It does not explicitly account for any potential issues of deliverability or acceptability of the policies or approaches described.
Please note: The framework is a discussion document only, and not government policy.
It is a live and regularly updated document, so please check back for updates.
Overall accountability for the strategic framework is held by the Public Health Strategic Response Group (SRG). This is chaired by the Senior Responsible Officer for the incident response, Dr Susan Hopkins, Chief Medical Advisor to the UK Health Security Agency. The SRG oversees and guides the development and content of the framework.
Last updated 16/12/2021
These resources have been produced by international and UK based organisations to support the management of COVID-19:
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- World Health Organization
Provides information regarding the current outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19), and Country and Technical Guidance, covering topics such as country readiness, patient management, risk communication and community engagement, surveillance and case definitions, infection prevention and control in health care facilities, disease commodity package, laboratory guidance, early investigations, and reduction of transmission from animals to humans.
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- NICE (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence): COVID products
The guidelines are developed in collaboration with NHS England and NHS Improvement and a cross-speciality clinical group, supported by the specialist societies and royal colleges. Rapid evidence reviews that have been prioritised will look at whether certain medicines may increase the severity or length of COVID-19 illness.
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- Medbox
The MEDBOX team has compiled a collection of the most important guidelines and resources, situation reports, communication tools, laboratory guidance, etc.
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- MRC Centre for Global Infectious Disease Analysis
These pages provide all output from the Imperial College COVID-19 Response Team, including publicly published online reports, planning tools, scientific resources, publications and video updates.
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- The Sphere standards and the Coronavirus response
The Sphere movement aims to improve the quality of humanitarian work during disaster response. They have provided information on how individuals, communities and humanitarian actors best respond to the COVID-19 outbreak. The document has two sections:1. The first section covers fundamental principles which are crucial to a successful, holistic intervention.2. The second covers relevant standards and guidance in the handbook’s Water Supply, Sanitation and Hygiene Promotion (WASH) and Health chapters.
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- Health Information and Quality Authority
The Republic of Ireland's HIQA’s Health Technology Assessment (HTA) team has created a Database of public health guidance on COVID-19 produced by international organisations and curated by theme.
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- Legal, policy and practical guidance
The Network for Public Health Law has produced a primer outlining legal, policy and practical guidance to understand the Novel Coronavirus and its related public health emergency response.
The current COVID-19 crisis is unprecedented in modern times and the scale and complexity of the response required is unique from any other incident.
With its expertise in virology and epidemiology, and the well-developed public health infrastructure within England, UKHSA is uniquely placed to undertake a number of initiatives to better understand and predict future trends in COVID-19.
UKHSA Scientific Summaries
COVID-19 public health advice changes: scientific summary (PDF)
On Friday 1st April 2022, new guidance for the public was introduced advising people with symptoms of respiratory infections including COVID-19 to try to stay at home and avoid contact with other people if they have a high temperature or do not feel well enough to go to work or carry out normal activities. This paper briefly summarises evidence that supports the new guidance.
COVID-19 self-isolation changes: scientific summary (PDF)
On Wednesday 22 December 2021, new guidance for the public and health and social care staff was introduced to enable those who test positive for SARS-CoV-2 to reduce their self-isolation period from 10 days to 7 days. This change applies to both vaccinated and unvaccinated individuals. This paper briefly describes the scientific rationale for the change in guidance.
COVID-19 register
The COVID-19 register provides details of Public Health England (PHE) and UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA)-led studies that have taken place since February 2020. It includes only PHE and UKHSA led studies and not collaborative studies led by non-UKHSA investigators. Please contact Elizabeth.Coates@ukhsa.gov.uk if you would like further information or if you would like to contact a research study lead.
UKHSA and PHE Rapid Reviews
This page highlights the work of the Evidence Cell. They have been producing scoping searches and summaries, evidence summaries, and rapid reviews, which are available on this page, along with a description of the methodologies undertaken.
UK Health Security Agency Research Portal
UKHSA and Public Health England have conducted over 150 research and surveillance studies to better understand SARS-CoV-2 virus and its transmission. More than 300 new research papers, commentaries and editorials on all aspects of the virus, the illness it causes, and how to mitigate the impact of the pandemic. These papers are in addition to the rapid reviews described above, and are searchable via this portal.
The UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services Team has compiled a Guide to Covid-19 Rapid Review Collections, to avoid unnecessary duplication of effort.
At the start of the COVID-19 outbreak, many publishers made their content freely available to ensure that health practitioners have access to the best available evidence. This section brings these resources together, to make them more accessible.
Publisher Collections
Many major publishers of medical journals have made coronavirus-related content freely available. Links to these, and further information can be found in this PDF document.
Books
UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services have compiled a coronavirus book collection, for UKHSA staff. If UKHSA staff would like to make a book purchase suggestion you may do so by emailing libraries@phe.gov.uk.
Evidence Collections
The following organisations are providing access to rapid reviews, evidence syntheses, and specialist topics related to COVID-19:
Cochrane Special Collections
This page highlights content from the Cochrane Library relating to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Living mapping of ongoing Covid-19 research
The World Health Organization (WHO) and Cochrane have created a living mapping and living systematic review of Covid-19 trials.
Oxford COVID-19 Evidence Service
The Centre for Evidence Based Medicine (CEBM) is producing evidence syntheses to answer clinical questions about COVID-19 pandemic.
Evidence Aid
This evidence collection includes summaries of systematic reviews that might be relevant to the direct impact of COVID-19 (including reviews of emerging research, as well as existing reviews of relevant interventions) on health and other outcomes, the impact of the COVID-19 response on other conditions, and issues to consider for the recovery period after COVID-19. Content is available in plain-language summaries of high-quality research which are available in English, and translated into French, German, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and Chinese (simplified and traditional).
EPPI-Centre: a living systematic map of the evidence
The EPPI Centre is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the the University College of London Institute of Education maintain an up-to-date map of the current evidence that they partition into broad domains for easy exploration.
Public Health Scotland COVID-19 Research Repository
This repository contains a comprehensive collection of Scottish COVID-19 research. This includes research about COVID-19 in Scotland as well as research on COVID-19 undertaken by Scottish researchers.
Wales COVID-19 Evidence Centre: Our reports
This Centre produces two types of report: The first report for each question is a ‘Rapid Evidence Summary’ (RES), which is produced in one to two weeks. The aim of the RES is to provide some early information and inform the next stage of our work. If sufficient research information is available, and our stakeholders require further information, then the second stage involves conducting a ‘Rapid Review’ (RR). The RRs are typically conducted in one to two months.
Ireland National Health Library and Knowledge Service
This web-page includes evidence summaries, rapid reviews, and clinical guidance information produced by the Ireland National Health Library and Knowledge Service.
Health Information and Quality Authority, Ireland
HIQA's evidence summaries are undertaken at the request of the National Public Health Emergency Team (NPHET) to inform national strategic decision-making.
Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health COVID Evidence Portal
CADTH produce a series of reports on topics related to COVID-19, including prevention, infection control, screening and testing, treatment, and mental health.
COVID-19 Evidence Network (COVID-END)
Developed by the McMaster Health Forum, this is an inventory of ‘best evidence syntheses’ for all types of decisions being faced by those who are part of the COVID-19 pandemic response.
COVID-19 Data Index
This site hosts a metadata catalogue of COVID-19 data sets, ranging from clinical, sociodemographic, environmental, economic and mobility data to case statistics and genomic sequences.
SPORE Evidence Alliance
This is a Canada-wide alliance of researchers who produce evidence to inform decision(s) related to health policy, practice and/or service for COVID-19.
National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine collection
NASEM's collection is a compilation of their COVID-19-related resources. The publications explore prevention, response, and recovery, from pandemic infectious disease.
Rapid Reviews COVID-19 RR:C19
One of the missions of RR:C19 is to accelerate peer review of COVID-19-related research across a wide range of disciplines and deliver almost-real-time, dependable scientific information that policymakers, scholars, and health leaders can use. They do this by soliciting rapid peer reviews of time-sensitive and interesting preprints, which are then published online and linked to the preprint servers that host the manuscripts.
Royal College of Surgeons of England COVID-19 Research Group
This site links to projects related to COVID-19 and surgery.
Public Health Ontario
Public Health Ontario provides scientific and technical advice to the Ministry of Health, local public health units and other health system partners to support COVID-19 response efforts. This site contains evidence briefs on a range of COVID-19 topics.
Outbreak.info
This is an open-source database of SARS-CoV-2 variant data, COVID-19 epidemiology data, and published research. Outbreak.info is a project from the Hughes , Su , Wu , and Andersen labs at Scripps Research to unify COVID-19 and SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology and genomic data, published research, and other resources. Researchers, health officials, and the public can track the pandemic using data on cases, deaths, and genomic variants, and stay updated on related research through interactive visualizations, a searchable library, and downloadable raw data.
If you need assistance with developing and running searches, UKHSA staff can contact libraries@ukhsa.gov.uk. If you would like a specialist to undertake a search for you please log into our Knowledge and Library Service Enquiries Portal to submit a literature search request.
Non-eligible staff are advised to contact their local health librarian for support if necessary.
Database searching
This section provides details of COVID-19-related information sources, including guidance on how to search, databases, preprint servers, grey literature, search terms, and searching strategies for specific sources. In addition, you will also find links to live literature searches, and datasets.
Guides on how to search
The World Health Organization has produced this reference book about methods to guide Health-Emergency and Disaster Risk Management research, and chapter 7.2 is specifically about how to search for reports of existing research - this link opens up as a PDF document. Health Emergency and Disaster Risk Management (Health-EDRM) has recently emerged as a critical field for research, policy, and practice as a result of the growing recognition of health as a core dimension in disaster risk management.
A roadmap for searching literature in PubMed has been produced by Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and it provides guidance on how to build and conduct a systematic search in PubMed. The following topics are covered: research question formulation, collecting MeSH and free-text terms, truncation and phrase searching, combining search terms, use of search filters, evaluation search strategies, and managing references.
Databases
| Resource | Details |
| Guide to Covid-19 Rapid Review Collections | This resource has been created by the UK Health Security Agency Knowledge and Library services team. It is a reference guide to organisations who produce rapid reviews or evidence summaries on COVID-19 topics. Its purpose is to enable the quick discovery of evidence to answer research questions. It is made available so that those who intend to undertake reviews can check the evidence base before doing so, thus avoiding unnecessary duplication of effort. Please note that it is not an exhaustive list. |
| PROSPERO | This is an international prospective register of systematic reviews, rapid reviews, and umbrella reviews. They are fast-tracking registration of protocols related to COVID-19. Before starting a systematic review, check this resource, and if one is already being undertaken, please do not duplicate without good reason. Switch to another topic to avoid research waste and contribute more effectively to tackling the pandemic. |
| COVID-END | This is an inventory of ‘best evidence syntheses’ for all types of decisions being faced by those who are part of the COVID-19 pandemic response. The evidence is divided into four parts: public-health measures (e.g. masks and tests), clinical management of COVID-19 (e.g. prescription drugs) and pandemic-related conditions (e.g. mental health and addictions issues), health-system arrangements (e.g., scaling capacity up or down and virtual-care alternatives to in-person care), and economic and social responses (e.g., classroom and public-transit changes). Before starting a systematic review, check this resource, and if one is already being undertaken, please do not duplicate without good reason. Switch to another topic to avoid research waste and contribute more effectively to tackling the pandemic. |
| L·OVE platform | This is a Living OVerview of COVID-19-related Evidence. The word ‘living’ describes a system that is updated as soon as new evidence becomes available. It maps and organises all the best evidence on COVID-19. This resource is part of the Epistemonikos multilingual database of health evidence, the largest source of systematic reviews relevant for health-decision making, and a large source of other types of scientific evidence. |
| WHO Global Research Database on COVID-19 | This database represents a comprehensive multilingual source of current literature on the topic. It is updated daily from searches of bibliographic databases, hand searching, and the addition of other expert-referred scientific articles. |
| LitCovid | Produced by the National Library of Medicine, this resource provides a central access to 72516 (and growing) relevant articles about COVID-19 in PubMed. The articles are updated daily and are organised under 8 headings (general, mechanism, transmission, diagnosis, treatment, prevention, case report, and forecasting). They are further categorised by different research topics and geographic locations for improved access. |
| Children and COVID-19 Research Library | Curated by UNICEF, this is a curated collection of research about COVID-19 and children. |
| CoronaCentral | This resource collates published papers and preprints for SARS-CoV-2, MERS-CoV and SARS-CoV, and organises them by browsable themes (epidemiology, clinical, biology, treatment, psychology, and policy). You can also search by keyword. |
| COVID-19 Research Implementation and Knowledge Hub | The aim of this hub is to ensure that research teams can find the support, tools, resources and guidance that they need to aid their studies during this rapidly evolving situation. Using shared and open protocols and tools can raise research standards and enable easier and better data sharing. |
Google and Google Scholar are two popular information sources, but there are also some bibliographic databases, such as PubMed, Medline, Embase, Global Health, and Global Index Medicus, which support more advanced searching and provide access to relevant biomedical journals. More information about accessing databases is available here.
Preprint sources
The COVID-19 Portfolio has been created by the National Institutes of Health. It is a comprehensive, expert-curated source for publications and preprints related to either COVID-19 or the novel coronavirus SARS-CoV-2. It includes articles from PubMed and preprints from arXiv, bioRxiv, ChemRxiv, medRxiv, Research Square, and SSRN, and is updated daily.
Grey literature searching
Grey literature is a wide range of different information that is produced outside of traditional publishing and distribution channels, and which is often not retrievable via indexing databases. The following are resources that can identify grey literature:
- Grey literature: index and alternative sources and resources
UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services has compiled this list of resources for finding grey literature.
- Grey Matters: a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature
The Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health provides Canada’s federal, provincial, and territorial health care decision-makers with objective evidence to help make informed decisions about the optimal use of drugs and medical devices in their health care system. CADTH’s free online resource for grey literature searching, Grey Matters, is a practical tool for searching health-related grey literature.
- MedNar
This database is a US resource which searches journal articles, medical societies, and other government resources.
Search terms
To search these resources, it is important to use the right terminology. This is not an exhaustive list of COVID-19 search terms, as the terminology is changing regularly, but it is a starting point, and a combination of these terms can be used to search the information sources described above:
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- (outbreak* OR "respiratory illness" OR "respiratory disease" OR respiratory symptom* OR seafood market OR food market OR wildlife) and (Wuhan OR China OR Chinese)
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Medical Subject Headings (MeSH)
The U.S. National Library of Medicine produces the Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) thesaurus, a controlled and hierarchically-organized vocabulary, used for indexing, cataloguing, and searching of biomedical and health-related information. Here are some multi-language versions of MeSH:
Search strategies
A number of organisations have developed search strategies to make it easier for people to find the evidence on freely-available information sources:
UK Health Security Agency
UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services Team has developed (and updated on 08/03/2021) a search strategy specifically for PubMed, an openly accessible database of biomedical literature, produced by the U.S. National Library or Medicine:
| (coronavirus*[Title] OR coronovirus*[Title] OR coronoravirus*[Title] OR coronaravirus*[Title] OR corono-virus*[Title] OR corona-virus*[Title] OR "Coronavirus"[Mesh] OR "Coronavirus Infections"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19"[Mesh] OR "SARS-CoV-2"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19 Serological Testing"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19 Nucleic Acid Testing"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19 Testing"[Mesh] OR "COVID-19 Vaccines"[Mesh] OR "Wuhan coronavirus" [Supplementary Concept] OR COVID-19[Title] OR CORVID-19[Title] OR "2019nCoV"[Title] OR "2019-nCoV"[Title] OR WN-CoV[Title] OR nCoV[Title] OR "SARS-CoV-2"[Title] OR HCoV-19[Title] OR "novel coronavirus"[Title])
If you are searching for evidence from the start of the outbreak then you should combine the above search (using OR) with the following terms:
OR ((wuhan[Title/Abstract]) AND (pneumonia[Title/Abstract] OR outbreak*[Title/Abstract] OR "respiratory illness"[Title/Abstract]))) OR "Wuhan novel coronavirus"[Title/Abstract]) OR "Wuhan coronavirus"[Title/Abstract])
If you want to compare the current outbreak with previous similar breaks, you should add search terms for Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS, MERSCoV, MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS, SARS-CoV-1, SARSCoV-1, SARSCoV1, SARS-CoV1, SARSCoV, SARS-CoV, SARS1, SARS-1, SARScoronavirus1, SARS-coronavirus-1, SARScoronavirus 1, SARS coronavirus1, SARScoronovirus1, SARS-coronovirus-1, SARScoronovirus 1, SARS coronovirus1). |
- For quicker results, a less systematic search is available here - choose the COVID-19 option.
- Filtered search results on the treatment of COVID-19, are available here, from LitCOVID.
National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE)
As of June 2021, NICE has developed and updated their search strategy for OVID Embase and Medline databases, and they are available on pages 41 and 42 in this preprint article (opens in PDF).
TRACIE Healthcare Emergency Preparedness Information Gateway
TRACIE is produced by the US Department of Health & Human Services. It was created to meet the information and technical assistance needs of people working in disaster medicine, healthcare system preparedness, and public health emergency preparedness.
Canadian Agency for Drugs and Technologies in Health
CADTH has developed a set of literature searching tools for COVID-19, which include search strings, and links to grey literature resources.
Google Scholar
Dr Wichor Bramer from Erasmus MC the Netherlands has created this search strategy, which can be cut and pasted into Google Scholar:
| 2019nCoV|"2019 nCoV|CoV|coronavirus"|"2019 novel|new coronavirus|cov"|"wuhan coronavirus|cov|ncov|outbreak" |"wuhan*coronavirus|cov|ncov|outbreak" |"wuhan**coronavirus|cov|ncov|outbreak"|"coronavirus|cov|ncov*wuhan" |
Ovid Expert Searches
OVID provides access to databases such as Medline and Embase. This page provides hints, advice and suggestions about how search strategies might be built, in addition to links to COVID-19-related searches which can be automatically re-run.
GIDEON (Global Infectious Diseases and Epidemiology Online Network)
The Gideon Database has been enabled for all NHS Athens accounts nationally until the end of April. (Please note that the link to GIDEON is in the menu bar at the top, not in the list of Ovid products).
Live literature searches
To reduce duplication of effort and maintain consistency in searching, librarians are sharing their search strategies, so that they can be re-used and adapted by other searchers:
- searchRxiv (pronounced “search archive”) has been established to help librarians and researchers report, store and share their searches consistently and to enable them to review and re-use or adapt existing searches. Search strategy authors can upload their search strategies to a searchable database, and can obtain a digital object identifier (DOI) for their search, so that it can be cited.
Datasets
COVID-19 Open Research Dataset Challenge (CORD-19)
In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the White House and a coalition of leading research groups have prepared the COVID-19 Open Research Dataset (CORD-19). CORD-19 is a resource of over 1,000,000 scholarly articles, including over 400,000 with full text, about COVID-19, SARS-CoV-2, and related coronaviruses. This freely available dataset is provided to the global research community to apply recent advances in natural language processing and other AI techniques to generate new insights in support of the ongoing fight against this infectious disease. There is a growing urgency for these approaches because of the rapid acceleration in new coronavirus literature, making it difficult for the medical research community to keep up.
This section contains links to long-COVID-related updates, guidelines, evidence reviews and briefings, clinical trials, search strategies, networks, webinars, supporting resources, and patient information:
Long COVID updates
The UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services has been producing a weekly Long COVID Research Alert, each Wednesday morning since December 2021, and all issues are available in PDF format in the Keeping Up To Date tab (option 3), on our Finding the Evidence: Coronavirus page.
Guidelines
COVID-19 rapid guideline: managing the long-term effects of COVID-19
Published by the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence in December 2020, this guideline covers identifying, assessing and managing the long-term effects of COVID-19, often described as ‘long COVID’. It makes recommendations about care in all healthcare settings for adults, children and young people who have new or ongoing symptoms 4 weeks or more after the start of acute COVID-19. It also includes advice on organising services for long COVID.
Long COVID: the NHS plan for 2021/22
Published by NHS England in June 2021, this publication describes the NHS plan for long COVID 2021/22.
National guidance for post COVID services
Published by NHS England in July 2022, this PDF document informs the commissioning of post COVID services in England. It will assist local healthcare systems to plan and deliver services that meet the varied and often complex needs of people living with long COVID and is being published alongside the NHS plan for improving long COVID services.
Evidence reviews and briefings
The effectiveness of vaccination against long COVID: A rapid evidence briefing Produced by the UK Health Security Agency COVID-19 Rapid Evidence Service in February 2022, this PDF is a rapid evidence briefing on the effectiveness of vaccination against long COVID.
Epistemonikos post COVID-19 condition evidence list
The Epistemonikos Foundation collates the best evidence for health decision-making on different topics, and they have created this online platform, which lists all the evidence on COVID-19.
VA Evidence Synthesis Program Long Covid evidence review collection
Produced by the US Evidence Synthesis Program, this catalogue is maintained by staff at the VA Evidence Synthesis Program based in Portland, Oregon. They identify new evidence reviews and reviews in progress through literature searching and through correspondence with colleagues and content experts.
WHO COVID-19 global literature on coronavirus disease: Long COVID
The global literature cited in the WHO COVID-19 Research Database is updated daily (Tuesday through Saturday) from searches of bibliographic databases, hand searching, and the addition of other expert-referred scientific articles. This database represents a comprehensive multilingual source of current literature on long COVID.
Characterising long COVID: a living systematic review
This article published in 2021 in BMJ Global Health, explains that long COVID is a complex condition with prolonged heterogeneous symptoms. The nature of studies precludes a precise case definition or risk evaluation. There is an urgent need for prospective, robust, standardised, controlled studies into aetiology, risk factors and biomarkers to characterise long COVID in different at-risk populations and settings.
COVID-19: a living systematic map of the evidence - long COVID segment
The EPPI Centre is part of the Social Science Research Unit at the the University College of London Institute of Education maintain an up-to-date map of the current evidence that they partition into broad domains for easy exploration. They categorise this evidence base, and have a long COVID segment.
Living with Covid19 – Second review
The National Institute for Health and Care Research have produced this dynamic review of the evidence around long COVID.
Long COVID through a public health lens: An umbrella review
This umbrella review, published in Public Health Reviews in March 2022 finds that Long COVID will likely have a substantial public health impact. Current evidence is still heterogeneous and incomplete. To fully understand long COVID, well-designed prospective studies with representative samples will be essential.
Characterizing long COVID in an international cohort: 7 months of symptoms and their impact
Published in eClinicalMedicine in July 2021, this is a seven-month study of patients with prolonged COVID symptoms. The study found that "Patients with Long COVID report prolonged, multisystem involvement and significant disability. By seven months, many patients have not yet recovered (mainly from systemic and neurological/cognitive symptoms), have not returned to previous levels of work, and continue to experience significant symptom burden."
Post-COVID Conditions: CDC Science
This page describes how the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention are analysing healthcare data, partnering with clinicians, and working with researchers to learn more about long COVID.
An overview of post-COVID-19 condition (long COVID)
In 2021, the Canadian Journal of Health Technologies published a PDF document with the results of an overview of long COVID symptoms, prevention, treatment and management.
Clinical trials
International Clinical Trials Registry Platform - you can limit to COVID-19 searches and then type long COVID in the search box, to view trials at different stages.
Search strategies
The long COVID search strategies are based on searches devised by the information scientists at the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence. Additional terms have been added from a range of search strategies developed by UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services, and information scientists at World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
| Embase (OVID platform) |
Medline (OVID platform) |
|
|
| 1. exp severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2/ |
1. exp SARS-CoV-2/ |
| 2. coronavirus disease 2019/ |
2. exp COVID-19/ |
| 3. experimental coronavirus disease 2019/ |
3. (corona* adj1 (virus* or viral*)).tw,kw,kf. |
| 4. (corona* adj1 (virus* or viral*)).tw,kw. |
4. (CoV not (Coefficien* or "co-efficien*" or covalent* or Covington* or covariant* or covarianc* or "cut-off value*" or "cutoff value*" or "cut-off volume*" or "cutoff volume*" or "combined optimi?ation value*" or "central vessel trunk*" or CoVR or CoVS)).tw,kw,kf. |
| 5. (CoV not (Coefficien* or co-efficien* or covalent* or covington or covariant* or covarianc* or "cut-off value*" or "cutoff value*" or "cut-off volume*" or "cutoff volume*" or "combined optimi?ation value*" or "central vessel trunk" or CoVR or CoVS)).tw,kw. |
5. (coronavirus* or 2019nCoV* or 19nCoV* or "2019 novel*" or Ncov* or "n-cov" or "SARS-CoV-2*" or "SARSCoV-2*" or SARSCoV2* or "SARS-CoV2*" or "severe acute respiratory syndrome*" or COVID*2).tw,kw,kf. |
| 6. (coronavirus* or 2019nCoV* or 19nCoV* or "2019 novel*" or Ncov* or "n-cov" or "SARS CoV-2*" or "SARSCoV-2*" or SARSCoV2* or "SARS-CoV2*" or "severe acute respiratory syndrome*" or COVID*2).tw,kw. |
6. or/1-5 |
| 7. or/1-6 |
7. limit 6 to yr="2019-Current" |
| 8. limit 7 to yr="2019-Current" |
8. (7 and english.lg.) not (letter or historical article or comment or editorial or news).pt. not (Animals/ not humans/) |
| 9. (8 and english.lg.) not (letter or editorial).pt. not (nonhuman/ not human/) not (conference abstract or conference paper or conference proceeding or "conference review").pt. |
9. ((after or following or post) adj ("hospital discharge" or "patient discharge" or discharge or recovery or infection or ICU or "intensive care")).ti,kw,kf. |
| 10. exp long COVID/ |
10. ((medium or long-term or expanded or extended or recurr* or sustain* or persist* or prolong* or continu* or debilitating or long-lasting or longitudinal) adj (effect* or symptom* or impact* or outcome* or recover* or suffer* or sequela* or profile* or complication*)).ti,kw,kf. |
| 11. ((after or following or post) adj ("hospital discharge" or "patient discharge" or discharge or recovery or infection or ICU or "intensive care")).ti,kw,kf. |
11. ((post-viral or postviral or long or chronic or persistent or post-acute or lasting or post-infectio* or post covid* or residual or ongoing) adj (haul* or symptom* or syndrome* or fatigue or covid* or covid-19 or illness or condition*)).ti,kw,kf. |
| 12. ((medium or long-term or expanded or extended or recurr* or sustain* or persist* or prolong* or continu* or debilitating or long-lasting or longitudinal) adj (effect* or symptom* or impact* or outcome* or recover* or suffer* or sequela* or profile* or complication*)).ti,kw,kf. |
12. Long Term Adverse Effects/ |
| 13. ((post-viral or postviral or long or chronic or persistent or post-acute or lasting or post-infectio* or post covid* or residual or ongoing) adj (haul* or symptom* or syndrome* or fatigue or covid* or covid-19 or illness or condition*)).ti,kw,kf. |
13. (post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 or PASC).tw,kw,kf. |
| 14. Long Term Adverse Effects/ |
14. (chronic COVID syndrome or CCS).tw,kw,kf. |
| 15. (post-acute sequelae of COVID-19 or PASC).tw,kw,kf. |
15. complication*.ti,kw,kf. |
| 16. (chronic COVID syndrome or CCS).tw,kw,kf. |
16. long.ti,kw,kf. |
| 17. complication/ |
17. or/9-16 |
| 18. long.ti,kw,kf. |
18. 8 and 17 |
| 19. or/10-18 |
19. limit 18 to (english language and yr="2019 -Current") |
| 20. 9 and 19 |
|
| 21. limit 20 to (english language and yr="2019 -Current") |
|
Networks
FutureNHS: Long COVID network (registration required with an NHS email)
This is a knowledge-sharing platform, where NHS professionals can share experiences with managing long-COVID, via a virtual forum. There are also links to resources and webinars.
Altea: A network for sharing evidence-based information on the long-term effects of COVID-19
Altea is a platform that connects people who are keen to understand the long-term consequences of contracting coronavirus disease (COVID-19), also known as long COVID or post COVID-19 condition, and to exchange expertise and experience.
CHAIN Network
CHAIN includes more than 75 sub-groups and special interest groups which enable members from different components of the network to focus on areas of common interest, including long-COVID.
Webinars
Expanding our understanding of post COVID-19 condition web series: Neurology and mental health
The WHO COVID-19 Clinical Management Team jointly with the Department of mental health and substance use hosted a webinar on 1 March 2022 focused on the key elements to consider in the clinical management of the neurological and mental health aspects of Post COVID-19 condition.
Supporting resources
Living with long Covid: A community and primary care nursing resource
The Queen’s Nursing Institute (QNI) has produced this peer-reviewed resource to help community and primary care nurses support people suffering from long-COVID.
Patient information
Your COVID Recovery
This resource has been developed by the NHS and provides general information on all aspects of recovering from COVID-19 including physical, emotional and psychological wellbeing, advice on recovery and information for families and carers.
Long-term effects of coronavirus (long COVID)
This site has been developed by the NHS, and provides information and advice to the public about symptoms of long COVID and how to manage them.
Long COVID
This booklet, produced by the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence, and the Royal College of General Practitioners, is for people who have signs and symptoms that continue or develop after acute COVID-19.
How to manage post-viral fatigue after COVID-19
The Royal College of Occupational Therapists has produced advice about how to manage post-viral fatigue after COVID-19.
Long COVID patient information
The Egton Medical Information Systems Limited (EMIS) has a web-site called Patient Info, and it contains a number of web-pages about long-COVID, including:
Long Covid: the symptoms and tips for recovery
Many people are suffering long-term effects after having COVID. The British Heart Foundation looks at the symptoms of long COVID and how they can be managed.
Living with long COVID
Many people with coronavirus make a full recovery within weeks. But others continue to feel the effects for some time after – this is known as 'long COVID'. Age UK have produced this web-page to provide information about recognising the symptoms of long COVID and how best to manage them.
Clinical Trials
Research Projects
COVID-19: good council practice
Local Government Association
Councils are doing remarkable work to address the challenges brought by COVID-19. The local government sector has pooled its resources, responded to new problems with innovative solutions, as well as recovery and renewal. The Local Government Association has collated these case studies of some of the important work being carried out by the sector.
Trusted sources from Health Education England
The NHS Library and Knowledge Services team at Health Education England has collated information and resources on Covid-19 from trusted sources which librarians, health and care staff, teachers, voluntary organisations can be confident to share with patients, clients and families. It includes information tailored for children and young people, older people, people who prefer information in British Sign Language (BSL) or Makaton and other accessible formats.
Information in other languages
The US National Library of Medicine has health information available in multiple languages, organised by health topic.
In the Yorkshire and Humber region, they have produced specific Covid-19 information for migrants and it is accessible via this link. The site includes information in different languages and information about services in the region.
In partnership with the Red Cross, Migrant Help and Clear Voice, Doctors of the World has published information for patients in 48 languages.
New South Wales Government in Australia produces a range of translated consumer health information on COVID-19.
The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, have made answers to common questions about coronavirus available in Spanish. Topics include how long does coronavirus last on different surfaces, what types of disinfectant are most effective, etc.
Evaluating online information
Not all information is good information, especially in an online environment. The Internet is full of facts and opinions, often shared more widely via social media. Most of the information is balanced and informative but some can be misleading or even harmful to share and/or use in the decisions we make about our health.
- SHARE checklist
The SHARE checklist can help you spot false and/or misleading information.
- CRAAP Test (opens as a PDF document)
CRAAP stands for Currency, Relevance, Authority, Accuracy, and Purpose. The CRAAP Test provides a list of questions to ask yourself when deciding whether or not a source is reliable and sufficiently credible to use when making decisions.
- World Health Organization COVID-19 Mythbusters
The World Health Organization has created a page which debunks COVID-related myths, by providing facts. Topics include masks, sanitisers, use of supplements, hand dryers, etc.
Other sources of consumer health information
The following sites provide quality information about the coronavirus for the public, particularly travellers.
- Centres for Disease Control and Prevention
- Foreign and Commonwealth Office
- Patient Information Forum
- World Health Organization
- Coronavirus: the science explained - this site, from UK Research and Innovation, lays out the evidence and the facts about the virus, the disease, the epidemic, and its control. This website will be regularly updated with the latest scientific information behind the coronavirus outbreak.
- EPI-WIN - WHO Information Network for Epidemic - provided by the World Health Organization, EPI-WIN seeks to give people access to timely accurate information from trusted sources, during a public health event, including COVID-19. This information will be tailored to different audiences and will answer pertinent questions as the event unfolds. It contains myth busters, advice, FAQs, and useful infographics.
Information about specific topics
Patient experience
- Patient Experience Library
The Patient Experience Library presents the latest evidence on patient experience and patient/public involvement.
- HealthTalk
Thousands of people have shared their experiences on film to help you understand what it's like to have a health condition such as breast cancer or arthritis or long-COVID. These are all available on the HealthTalk website.
Cancer
The National Cancer Institute has created a Coronavirus information page for cancer patients and researchers.
Pregnancy
The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists has produced information for patients about the COVID-19 virus infection and pregnancy.
Hand hygiene
This section contains guidance on hand washing, in English, and other languages.
- The NHS has an information page on how to wash your hands.
- The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention has produced some handwashing posters in different languages, including Spanish, French, Arabic, Bengali, Chinese, Portuguese, Urdu.
Some online courses are freely available to improve knowledge about COVID-19:
Coronavirus: Learning for the health and care workforce (via e-Learning for Healthcare). The programme has been created by Health Education England and includes key materials to help the health and care workforce respond to Coronavirus. Courses in the Coronavirus programme currently include:
- Essential Guidance from the NHS, UK Government, WHO and BMJ
- Public Health England – Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
- Infection Prevention and Control
- Resources for Staff Working in Critical Care Setting
- Resources for Staff Working in Acute Hospital Setting
- Resources for Staff Working in Primary Care and Community Setting
- Resources for Staff Working in a Mental Health and Learning Disabilities Setting
- Resources for Nurses, Midwives and AHPs Returning to work, being Redeployed or Up-Skilled
- Resources for other Healthcare Staff Returning to Work
- Resources for End of Life Care COVID-19
- Resources for Specific Professions
- Resources for Volunteers supporting Health and Social Care
- Critical Care and Ward-Based Equipment Guides
- Staff Wellbeing and Resilience during COVID-19
COVID-19 Micro learning
The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control has produced a series of micro-learning online sessions to help manage the COVID-19 pandemic.
Emerging respiratory viruses, including COVID-19: methods for detection, prevention, response and control
This World Health Organization course provides a general introduction to COVID-19 and emerging respiratory viruses and is intended for public health professionals, incident managers and personnel working for the United Nations, international organizations and NGOs.
Irish Global Health Network
Resources for health professionals and global health workers, this page brings together relevant published data from a global health perspective on the coronavirus outbreak.
Science Matters: Let’s talk about COVID19
Imperial College London has launched a free online course explaining the science behind the response to the novel coronavirus (COVID19) outbreak. It is free to participate and takes approximately 19 hours to complete.
Finding the Evidence Training
The International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) Evidence for Global and Disaster Special Interest Group (E4GDH) has developed a PDF leaflet and a webinar about finding the evidence for global and disaster health. More information about the E4GDH Special Interest Group is on their website.
UKHSA Knowledge and Library Services
Knowledge and Library Services (KLS) provide a range of information skills training, which can be delivered in a group or one-to-one setting, face-to-face or via MS Teams. More information is available on the KLS training website.
