Children and COVID-19 Research Library

Schools, depending on their access to and quality of water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and the implementation of healthy behaviours, can be critical for the control and spread of many infectious diseases, including COVID-19. Schools provide opportunities for pupils to learn about the importance of hygiene and WASH-related practice, and build healthy habits and skills, with beneficial medium- and long-term consequences particularly in low- and middle-income countries: reducing pupils' absenteeism due to diseases, promoting physical, mental and social health, and improving learning outcomes. WASH services alone are often not sufficient and need to be combined with educational programmes. As pupils disseminate their acquired health-promoting knowledge to their (extended) families, improved WASH provisions and education in schools have beneficial effects also on the community. International organisations frequently roll out interventions in schools to improve WASH services and, in some cases, train pupils and teachers on safe WASH behaviours. How such interventions relate to local school education on WASH, health promotion and disease prevention knowledge, whether and how such knowledge and school books are integrated into WASH education interventions in schools, are knowledge gaps this study fills.

This study examined the feasibility of implementing preventive measures to prevent SARS-CoV-2 transmission across 105 English primary schools in summer 2020 via a survey and interviews with headteachers. High rates of implementation of most recommended measures were noted with the exception of requiring 2 m distance for students, fitting hand sanitizers in classrooms and introducing one-way systems in school corridors. Measures such as regular handwashing and stopping assemblies were considered easy to implement. Majorly challenging measures included distancing between individuals (for students: 51%, N ¼ 99; for staff: 34%; N ¼ 98; for parents: 26%, N ¼ 100), spacing out desks (34%, N ¼ 99), keeping same staff assigned to each student group (33%, N¼ 97) and staggering break times (25%, N¼ 99).

In the absence of an effective vaccine and/or treatment, COVID-19 remains pandemic. It is only public health measures, such as social distancing (and these included school closures), that have prevented millions of infections and deaths. School closures followed a precautionary principle in that many previous epidemics (e.g. influenza) were mainly transmitted by children. This is supported by few studies and yet, these closures have significantly impacted parents and children. We are now in September 2020, with public health restrictions being lifted in an attempt to attenuate the negative economic impact of the pandemic. The easing of restrictions has led to a resurgence of COVID-19 in a second wave of infections. In the meantime, summer school holidays are coming to an end in the northern hemisphere and it is salutary to review the effects on viral surges due to school openings thus far. This review shows that as schools open, outbreaks that affect both pupils and staff occur probably due to failure to adhere to public health principles: hand washing, distancing etc.

Hand hygiene is one of the most effective ways to remove germs, prevent the spread of infectious pathogens, and avoid getting sick. Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, health authorities have been advocating good hand hygiene practices. The primary aim of this study is to field test a prototype smart handwashing station deployed in a school setting during the COVID-19 pandemic.

There is need to support facemask citizen science and experiential education among children and families as the globe exits from the current lockdown, and teachers and students desire and seek for safe strategies to return to densely-attended schools. COVID-19 is a pandemic respiratory disease that disseminates as infectious respiratory or saliva droplets are released into the environment as people talk, sneeze, and cough. Currently the most publicized methods to prevent local transmission of COVID-19 and promote “droplet safety” in hospitals and communities include hand washing, social distancing, and stay-at-home strategies. In contrast to established benefits for medical masks in hospitals, the benefits of wearing masks or face covers/coverings (hereafter, “facemask”) in the community have been inconsistently debated by the media, creating confusion, and misinformation. Furthermore, high-profile political leaders in countries heavily affected by the pandemic have given misleading signs regarding containment measures associated with COVID-19 increasingly polarizing local communities around arguments on the value of facemasks in promoting public health, which is critically important to incentivize during the emergence of citizens from their lockdowns and during the phase of reopening local economies.

Global school closures in response to the COVID-19 pandemic affect up to 1.6 billion children and present an unprecedented risk to their education and well-being. WHO and UNICEF guidelines on infection prevention in schools identify a range of measures that need to be in place for schools to reopen and operate safely, including regular hand-washing with soap and water, daily disinfection and basic drinking water and sanitation services.

This paper deals with the problem of encouraging community service activities so that they can be active in efforts to prevent COVID-19. The purpose of this educational activity is to prevent the spread of Covid-19 which is increasingly happening in Indonesia, so it is hoped that adults and children can take Covid-19 prevention. The method used during this activity is in the form of offline and online education to the surrounding community, where the material presented is in the form of proper handwashing and how to make hand sanitizers.

Washing hands frequently and properly with soap and water is critical to preventing diseases. Yet the latest global estimates find that 3 billion people lacked soap and water at home, 900 million children lacked soap and water at their school, and 40% of health care facilities were not equipped to practice hand hygiene at points of care. Adequate water, sanitation and hygiene services for households, schools and healthcare facilities are essential to prevent the spread of infectious diseases including COVID-19. The low levels of coverage of these basic services in many parts of the world reflect substantial inequalities between and within countries and contribute to the vulnerability of these populations to the pandemic.