The document "Priority medical devices list for the COVID-19 response and associated technical specifications" complements this guideline.
This
...
document provides interim guidance on the quality, performance characteristics and related standards of personal protective equipment (PPE) to be used in the context of COVID-19. This includes WHO Priority Medical Devices, specifically: surgical masks, non-surgical masks, gloves, googles, face shields, gowns and N95 masks. It is intended for procurement agencies, occupational health departments, infection prevention and control departments or focal points, health facility administrators, biomedical and materials engineering, PPE manufacturers and public health authorities at both national and facility levels.
more
WHO has a unique combination of technical public health and scientific expertise, and a global operational footprint, with field offices in more than 150 countries. In 2020, this global, technical, and operational reach meant WHO was able to support countries around the world in every aspect of
...
COVID-19 public health response, from surveillance and laboratory testing to maintaining essential health services in the most vulnerable and fragile contexts.
more
While the COVID-19 pandemic threatens all members of society, persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted due to attitudinal, environmental and institutional barriers that are reproduc
...
ed in the COVID-19 response.
more
2 March 2021
Protracted displacement, socio-economic crises aggravated by the COVID-19 pandemic, dire humanitarian needs and protection threats continue to affect the Palestine refugees in Syria, L
...
ebanon and Jordan.
In Syria, the protracted conflict has left 91 per cent of the 438,000 Palestine refugees1 estimated to remain in the country in absolute poverty2 and 40 per cent displaced.
more
Policy Brief November 2021 Available in English, Spanish and Portuguese
The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the ongoing antimicrobial resistance (AMR) global crisis due to the increase in the use of
...
antibiotics to treat COVID-19 patients, disruptions to infection prevention and control practices in overwhelmed health systems, and diversion of human and financial resources away from monitoring and responding to AMR threats. Moreover, AMR is likely to have caused more COVID-19 deaths, as secondary bacterial infections can worsen the outcome of severe and critical COVID-19 illness. Therefore, it is more urgent than ever to prioritize efforts towards AMR containment and support countries to improve the detection, characterization and rapid response to emerging AMR.
more
The World Health Organization (WHO) recognizes the challenges countries face for maintaining their COVID-19 response while addressing competing pub
...
lic health challenges, conflicts, climate change and economic crises.
It remains critical for national programmes to continue to offer testing for COVID-19 in line with three main objectives: reduce morbidity and mortality through linkage to prompt care and treatment, reduce onward transmission and track the evolution of the epidemic and the virus
itself.
more
The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela has been facing a prolonged socio-political and economic situation that has profoundly and negatively impacted social and health indicators. The COVID-19 pandemi
...
c further aggravated the humanitarian context in the
country, which stretched the limits of an already weakened national health system. Violence and social conflicts, hyperinflation, constant political tensions, the persistence of migratory movements, and intensification of climate threats and natural hazards
have worsened the living conditions and health status of populations in vulnerable situations, including women, children, and indigenous people. A large influx of returnees back to Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of) marked the first
two years of the pandemic. However, the country’s continued deteriorating political, socio-economic, and human rights situation resulted in renewed increased migration of Venezuelans in 2022. The profile of Venezuelan migrants has progressively changed
over the years, from single men in search of better economic opportunities to families with women and children in situations of extreme vulnerability. The increasingly irregular and unsafe journeys of those migrants are constantly putting their lives at high risk
more
10 May 2021
This scientific brief replaces the WHO Scientific Brief entitled “’Immunity passports’ in the context of COVID-19”, published 24 April 2020.
This update is focused on what is c
...
urrently understood about SARS-CoV-2 immunity from natural infection. More information about considerations on vaccine certificates or “passports” will be covered in an update of WHO interim guidance, as requested by the COVID-19 emergency committee.
more
On 30thJanuary 2020 the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the People’s Republic of China to be a Public Health
...
Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC) under the international Health Regulations. The following day, the Italian Government declared a state of emergency, stopping all flights to and from Chinese airports. 1.2On 7th April the foreign, interior, transport and health ministers signed a decree under theInternational Convention on Maritime Search and Rescue stating that Italian ports could no longer be classified as places of safety for foreign naval units, including NGO-run migrantrescue ships, operating outside the Italian Search and Rescue (SAR) area. Despite the national lockdown and the closure of ports to international rescue vessels in the Mediterranean Sea, small ships departing from Libya and Tunisia have continued to sail towards the Italian coastline. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), during the period 1stJanuary –12thApril, 2020 there were an estimated 3,229 sea arrivals in Italy
more
A global hunger crisis -- fuelled by conflict, economic turbulence and climate-related shocks -- has been exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of people experiencing food insecurity and
...
hunger has risen since the onset of the pandemic. The IRC estimates that the economic downturn alone will drive the number of hungry people up by an additional 35 million in 2021. Without drastic action, the economic downturn caused by COVID-19 will suspend global progress towards ending hunger by at least five years.
more
Colombia is characterized by a fragile and prolonged humanitarian context marked by recurrent multi-hazards affecting its territories and combined with severe structural and systemic challenges within the health system. Recent shocks, including the
COVID
...
-19 pandemic, growing violence within the Colombian territories and along the border with Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of), and repetitive hydro-meteorological disasters over the last 12 months aggravate such chronic challenges.
In 2022, the number of people in need of humanitarian assistance increased by 300 000 due to deteriorating indicators of maternal and child mortality, pregnancy in adolescent girls, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), suicides, sexually transmitted
infections (STIs), gender-based and sexual violence, and communicable diseases. increasing population trends, primarily due to mass migration movements and the persistence of armed conflicts, create access barriers to essential health services, mobility restrictions, and forced displacement, further impacting the health, lives, and well-being of populations in vulnerable situations. In many territories, geographical distance to health facilities and attacks against medical missions hinder providing appropriate healthcare.
more
9 March 2022, Timely and accurate diagnostic testing for SARS-CoV-2 is an essential part of a comprehensive COVID-19 response strategy. Ag-RDTs can
...
be performed by individuals in which they collect their own specimen, perform a simple rapid test and interpret their test result themselves at a time and place of their choosing, termed COVID-19 self-testing. This interim guidance provides a new recommendation that COVID-19 self-testing, using SARS-CoV-2 Ag-RDTs, should be offered as part of SARS-CoV-2 testing services. It also includes implementation considerations that can guide decisions on whether, and how, to adopt self-testing in different contexts, including the populations being prioritized; the disease prevalence in that population; and the impact on accessibility of testing, health care services and result reporting.
more
In the early morning of 6 February 2023, a magnitude 7.8 earthquake occurred in southern Türkiye near the
northern border of Syria. The earthquake was followed 11 minutes later by a magnitude 6.7 aftershock. Many
aftershocks are still being felt across the region. Whilst the impact is still bei
...
ng assessed, initial reports evidence
significant damage in the areas of southern Türkiye and northern Syria.
In response, the Syria Ministry of Health (MoH) activated its emergency operations centre (EOC) on 6 Feb 2023
under the chairmanship of the Deputy Minister. In all affected governorates, public and private health facilities
and medical convoys have been repurposed to support the response and are being managed by the National
Ministry of Health (MoH) and Directorate of Health (DoH) at governorate level. Support has been directed to
affected areas, with medical convoys including 28 ambulances and 7 mobile clinics, deployed from the health
directorates of Damascus, Rural Damascus, Quneitra, Homs, Tartous, Aleppo and Latakia
more
This document is intended to guide the care of COVID-19 patients as the response capacity of health systems is challenged; to ensure that
...
COVID-19 patients can access life-saving treatment, without compromising public health objectives and safety of health workers.
It promotes two key messages:
1. Key public health interventions regardless of transmission scenario; and
2. Key action steps to be taken by transmission scenario to enable timely surge of clinical operations.
more
Yemen remains the site of one of the world’s largest humanitarian crises. A staggering 23.4 million people — 73 per cent of the population — require some form of humanitarian assistance in 2022, the result of seven years of escalating conflict.
Millions have been uprooted from their homes,
...
the economy has collapsed and nearly the entire health system has cratered, allowing preventable diseases, such as cholera and COVID-19, to spread unchecked.
more
General Objectives
1. Share information on practices on IPC for endemic colonization in a tertiary facility and how those precautions could evolve based on the progress of the event, then further integrating response capabilities, plans and proced
...
ures to triage and implement source control measures for case of COVID-19 in your facility.
2. Identify challenges in bed occupancy and staff management between different departments.
3. Conduct gap analysis through reflection on how the scenario could play out in your countries.
4. Identify areas for action in your facilities based on the issues explored in the scenario.
more
Basic psychosocial support skills are at the core of any Mental Health and PsychosocialSupport (MHPSS) intervention. Such skills are also indispensable for many others involvedin the COVID-19
...
response, whether they identify as an MHPSS provider or not. Thus, this guide is meant for all COVID-19 responders.
It is available in different languages: English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Amharic, Greek, Chinese, Bahasa Indonesia, Russian
more
The COVID-19 pandemic is a rapidly evolving global crisis and there
is much that is still emerging in terms of the psychosocial and mental
health consequences for the diverse populations affected
...
by this
emergency. This toolkit is based on what is currently available and
will be updated as additional resources become available.
more
Most shelters in the Caribbean are community centers, schools, or churches that are limited in size. The novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) distancing requirements subsequently reduced the number
...
of persons a shelter can accommodate during the hurricane season. This document reinforces some measures to follow per international emergency shelter protocols factoring in conditions for spacing between beds/cots, recreation areas and ventilation according to The Sphere Handbook, FEMA, and Australian Red Cross. Physical distancing and hygienic standards were modified highlighting that ideal requirements are not always feasible; therefore, we may choose realistic recommendations for practical purposes and suspected cases of COVID-19.
more
The World Health Organization (WHO) has identified mental health as an integral component of the COVID-19 response. Its rapid assessment of service
...
delivery for mental, neurological and substance use (MNS) disorders during the COVID-19 pandemic, on which this report is based, is the first attempt to measure the impact of the pandemic on such services at a global level. The data were collected through a web-based survey completed by mental health focal points at ministries of health between June and August 2020. The questionnaire covered the existence and funding of mental health and psychosocial support (MHPSS) plans, the presence and composition of MHPSS coordination platforms, the degree of continuation and causes of disruption of different MNS services, the approaches used to overcome these disruptions, and surveillance mechanisms and research on MNS data.
more