The World Health Organization (WHO) is cooperating with the online encyclopedia Wikipedia to spread reliable information about Covid-19 across the globe.

The hundreds of thousands of volunteer editors who are continuously updating Wikipedia will have free access to WHO infographics, videos and other material under a free licence agreement, the UN health agency and the Wikimedia Foundation announced on Thursday.

Wikipedia is one of the world’s most frequently visited sites for health information, according to the two organizations.

Coronavirus (File Photo: IANS)

“Equitable access to trusted health information is critical to keeping people safe and informed during the Covid-19 pandemic,” WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a statement from Geneva.

The WHO and Wikipedia editors have both been working to prevent the spread of misinformation related to Covid-19, the potentially fatal respiratory disease caused by the novel coronavirus.

Wikipedia currently offers more than 5,200 articles related to Covid-19 in 175 languages.

The encyclopedia is operated by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation that is based in San Francisco.