Immunizations are an essential health service that protect susceptible individuals from vaccine-preventable diseases (VPD).2 By providing timely immunizations, individuals and communities remain protected and the likelihood of a VPD outbreak decreases
This publication is available in Arabic, Chines...e, English, French, Russian and Spanish
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This guidance note identifies strategic action for policy-makers and managers at the national, subnational and facility level to address these different challenges.
This document provides brief information answering common questions regarding COVID-19 diagnostic tests and how to prioritize them to the patients most in need.
This What Matters? edition focuses on Covid-19 rumours circulating in the Rohingya camps of Cox’s Bazar. It explores some of the more common rumours, discusses sources and formats of information, presents community perspectives about rumours and communication, and suggests approaches to communicat...ing with the Rohingya community about Covid-19.
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This document provides advice on personal protective measures on publictransport(e.g. bus, metro, train, commuter boats).
This document offers guidance to Member States in the African region on the key steps used to conduct contact tracing related to the COVID-19 response. It is to be used by national and local health authorities in the implementation of tracing of contacts of probable and confirmed COVID-19 cases.
This guidance note is for UNICEF Regional and Country Office WASH staff to help them in their preparedness and response to the current COVID-19 global pandemic. It provides an overview of Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) and its intersection with water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and how UN...ICEF staff can help prevent infection and its spread in schools, through human to human and by touching surfaces contaminated with the virus. WASH services including waste management and environmental cleaning are all important for IPCs.
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In the current absence of vaccine for COVID-19, public health response target breaking the chain of infection by focusing on the mode of transmission. This paper summarizes current evidence-base around the transmission dynamics, pathogenic, and clinical features of COVID-19, to critically identify i...f there are any gaps in the current IPC guidelines.
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As information about COVID-19 is rapidly evolving, it can be challenging to navigate and synthesize all of the information. The purpose of this document is to provide a synthesized, indexed reference of accurate, standardized COVID-19 information from trustworthy sources. Information is presented in... simple, clear language to support the development of messages and materials needed for social and behavior change interventions.
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Deeply concerned by the morbidity and mortality caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the negative impacts on physical and mental health and social well-being, the negative impacts on economies and societies and the consequent exacerbation of inequalities within and between countries.
The Government of Republic of Zambia reported the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 on 18th March 2020. As of April 27th, 2020, there were 89 confirmed cases, three deaths and 42 recoveries. Confirmed cases are located in three provinces: Lusaka (83 cases), Copperbelt province (5 cases) and Central ...(1 case). Zambia introduced a series of measures including closure of three international airports, closure of all schools, movement restrictions and closure of non-essential services such as restaurant, bar, gym and public gatherings to curb the transmission rate.
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Effective response to an outbreak of COVID-19 requires detection in the very earliest stages of the outbreak when the number of cases is small, and the geographical extent of spread is limited. In order to achieve this, a sensitive surveillance system capable of detecting small scale, unusual events... is necessary.
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The following is a breakdown of key considerations to guide planning and resource allocation for COVID-19 preparedness and response to support UNHCR regional and country operations in Public Health, WASH, Shelter and Settlements programmes. While some of the activities are more relevant in camps or ...settlements it is important to assess the availability of all services outlined. These are based on the Strategic preparedness and Response Plan for COVID 19 and UNHCR guidance for operations and, where relevant, operation or site level outbreak preparedness and response plans.
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This guide is intended to support teams working directly with communities during the Covid-19 pandemic. It provides general guidance on community engagement during outbreak responses, including how to support an integrated response, as well as outbreak prevention and response.
This document provides guidance for African Union Member States on actions to be taken to ensure they continue to meet all the health
needs of their citizens in accordance with achieving the objectives of the Africa Health Strategy 2016 – 2030.
1 June 2020
Countries around the world are facing the challenge of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Maintaining essential health services: operational guidan...ce for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, subregional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services in the pandemic context. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring essential health services, and describes considerations on when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission recedes and surges. This document expands on the content of pillar 9 of the COVID-19 strategic preparedness and response plan, supersedes the earlier Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak, and complements the recently-released Community-based health care, including outreach and campaigns, in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. It is intended for decision-makers and managers at the national and subnational levels.
This is an update to COVID-19: Operational guidance for maintaining essential health services during an outbreak: Interim guidance, 25 March 2020
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Current evidence indicates that the COVID-19 virus is transmitted through respiratory droplets or contact. Contact transmission occurs when contaminated hands touch the mucosa of the mouth, nose, or eyes; the virus can also be transferred from one surface to another by contaminated hands, which fac...ilitates indirect contact transmission. Consequently, hand hygiene is extremely important to prevent the spread of the COVID-19 virus. It also interrupts transmission of other viruses and bacteria causing common colds, flu and pneumonia, thus reducing the general burden of disease.
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These advocacy messages complement the Technical Note on the Protection of Children during the COVID-19 Pandemic, for child protection actors to prioritize child protection in COVID-19 response plans.
Guiding principles for reuse are:
Respirators which have been visibly contaminated (e.g. during procedure at intubated patients, such as suction cleaning of airways, taking probes, extubation attempts, etc.) or are damaged or not fitting, should be discarded and cannot be taken for re-use or de...contamination procedures.
Respirators may be protected by a medical face mask in order to prevent soiling.
Use of new ‘expired respirators’ (manufacturers expiry date) is possible if they were properly stored until use.
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Infection prevention and control (IPC) practices are of critical importance in protecting the function of healthcare services at all levels and mitigating the impact on vulnerable populations. Although the management of possible COVID-19 cases is usually guided by national policies for specific heal...thcare facilities, community transmission is currently widespread in most EU/EEA countries and the UK, therefore primary healthcare providers in the community such as GPs, dentists and pharmacists are at risk of being exposed to COVID-19.
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