A collaborative effort between the University of the Free State’s (UFS’s) Centre for Teaching and Learning and the University of Pretoria’s Data Science for Social Impact research group led to the development of a framework to share Covid-19 data with the public in the form of a data repository and dashboard.

This collaboration is the result of engagement between multiple researchers and scientists who dedicated their time prior to the Covid-19 lockdown to proactively work with information required by the public.

Currently, these principles are being applied and information from the Department of Health will soon be shared with the public in a way that is useful, usable and desirable in order to mitigate anxiety and provide evidence regarding the spread of Covid-19, the UFS reports.

UFS Rector and Vice-Chancellor Professor Francis Petersen says many UFS academics and clinical staff are currently working in various disciplines to assist the provincial and national governments in overcoming the Covid-19 pandemic.

One of the contributions to the fight against Covid-19 is a project led by UFS wholly-owned clinical trial company FARMOVS, with clinicians from the Department of Internal Medicine, the Department of Critical Care and the Division of Virology participating in the Public Health Emergency Solidarity Trial initiated by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Negotiations are also under way between the UFS and the Department of Health in the Free State for FARMOVS to offer support with the continuation of healthcare to non-Covid-19 patients in an attempt to free up space at the Universitas Hospital for isolation of Covid-19 patients.

Meanwhile, Petersen says the continuation of the 2020 academic programme remains a critical factor for the UFS.

“We are looking at the development of low-tech approaches to learning and teaching that are sensitive to the challenges of connectivity, bandwidth and the type of devices that our students have, realising the deep socioeconomic inequalities and digital divide in our society.”

The university has put in place a Keep Calm, UFSLearnOn campaign for students and a Keep Calm, UFSTeachOn campaign for staff to provide the best possible support for academic staff and students by adapting existing support and practices that are best suited to the university’s new low-tech environment to help move learning and teaching online from April 20.

“This was widely communicated to all students,” says Petersen.

The WellnessWarriors campaign aimed at encouraging health and wellbeing among students and supporting them with matters such as managing stress, feeling overwhelmed, mental health, procrastination, time management and mindfulness, has also been launched.

Petersen is chairing a special executive group (SEG), which was established to assess the overall impact of Covid-19 on the university. The SEG acts as the Covid-19 nerve centre and includes, besides others, expertise in scenario planning, decision-making, project management, communication and institutional culture.

Seven task teams were established to focus on various aspects of the university’s operations such as teaching and learning, staff matters, operations, community engagement, student re-integration and financial and legal matters. Reporting to the SEG, the ultimate aim of the task teams is to forecast and plan for the impact of the pandemic on the UFS and the continuation of the academic programme in 2020.

One of the task teams, the UFS Coronavirus (Covid-19/SARS-COV-2) Task Team assists and advises the executive management, using epidemiological knowledge to monitor the situation closely and to share critical and verified information (especially against the background of fake news) as it becomes available. Led by SARChI Research chairperson in vector-borne and zoonotic diseases Professor Felicity Burt, this task team was already established at the beginning of March.