BEIJING — A total of 560,000 health workers in China's vast rural areas have taken online courses on the novel coronavirus epidemic to enhance their skills in epidemic control as of Monday, an official with the National Health Commission (NHC) said on Feb 11.

The latest findings about the virus and new knowledge of prevention and control have been added into the online learning materials to keep the health workers updated, Nie Chunlei, head of the department of primary health of the NHC, told a press conference in Beijing.

Rural health workers have made great contributions to virus screening and epidemic prevention and control by checking on returning and non-native individuals and people with fever, Nie said.

He noted that such work in remote areas is particularly painstaking as rural doctors have to travel long distances to accomplish the tasks.

China now has 1.44 million rural medical workers and has health services delivered to all rural areas, Nie said.