This inter-agency guidance document aims to supplement the COVAX demand creation package for COVID-19 vaccines with key considerations for humanita...rian contexts and marginalized populations with specific access and communication needs.
21 Sept.2021
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This publication is a companion document to the NDVP National Deployment and Vaccination Plans guidance, which provides a framework for countries to develop their national strategies. As countries ...face challenges with erratic vaccine supplies, use of multiple vaccine products with different characteristics, and the size of populations and their diversity, this document provides operational guidance and information to support planners and immunization programme managers at the national and sub-national levels on microplanning for COVID-19 vaccination implementation.
This Guide is available in English, French, Arabic, chinese, Portuguese, Spanish, Russian
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This report presents the findings from a ‘deep dive’ undertaken by UNICEF East Asia and the Pacific Regional Office to consider the experiences in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines an...d the Pacific. The target audience for this report includes OPDs and humanitarian actors at global, regional, and country levels.
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This guide is available in English, French, Spanish, Russian, Arabic and Chinese
This guide consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for health managers and policy-makers at national, sub...national and facility levels to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services.
The guide identifies recommendations to protect, support and empower health workers at individual, management, organizational and system levels.
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Interim guidance 2 February 2021 . Available in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Ukranian, Russian
Health workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed ...pan class="attribute-to-highlight medbox">to different hazards that put them at risk. Occupational hazards include exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, violence, harassment, stigma, discrimination, heavy workload and prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This document provides specific measures to protect occupational health and safety of health workers and highlights the duties, rights and responsibilities for health and safety at work in the context of COVID-19.
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Updated 2022. This guide addresses the care pathway from presentation of the patient to a health facility to patient discharge. It considers different levels of disease severity, from asymptomatic i...ndividuals to critically ill patients. Accounting for variations in the benefits and harms of chest imaging in different situations, remarks are provided to describe the circumstances under which each recommendation would benefit patients. The guide also includes implementation considerations for different settings, provides suggestions for impact monitoring and evaluation and identifies knowledge gaps meriting further research.
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22 April 2022, This document provides updated interim recommendations on the use of masks by health workers providing care to patients with suspected or confirmed COVID-...hlight medbox">19. This update is prompted by new evidence around mask use and COVID-19 transmission, as well as the emergence of variants of concern including Omicron. Masks continue to be a critical tool to prevent the spread of COVID-19. These interim guidelines supersede the recommendations provided in the WHO recommendations on mask use by health workers, in light of the Omicron variant of concern published on 22 December 2022.
WHO continually evaluates the emerging evidence and will review these interim recommendations within two months and issue new guidance as needed.
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This second edition of the Infection prevention and control in the context of coronavirus disease (COVID-19): A living guideline provides the most up to<.../span> date technical guidance on mask use in community settings in the context of COVID-19.
In this edition, new information includes updated mask recommendations for children in community settings including updated age specific recommendations, statements for children with disabilities and those at high risk for complications related to COVID-19 infection. Updated implementation considerations for mask use in school settings are also included.
This living guideline is being published using the MAGICApp online publishing platform https://app.magicapp.org/#/guideline/Lr2a8L , as well as in PDF copy on the WHO website.
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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 guidance 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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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 guidance 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.
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Available in Chinese, English, French, Russian and Spanish; WHO and UNICEF policy brief, 19 April 2021
Persons with disabilities are disproportionately impacted by COVID-...ighlight medbox">19, both directly because of infection, and indirectly because of restrictions to reduce the spread of the virus. Persons with disabilities are a diverse group, and the risks, barriers and impacts faced by them will vary in different contexts according to, among other factors, their age, gender identity, type of disability, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and migration status.
This document presents considerations and actions for the following stakeholders to ensure equity in access to vaccination against COVID‑19 for persons with disabilities
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The package provides practical, concise yet crucial information about the impact of COVID-19 on daily teaching practices as well as tips and suggestions t...o improve safety, well-being and learning, with students in face-to-face or remote settings.
The package speaks directly to the teachers. It can be adapted to their context and can be completed at the teachers’ own pace. It includes quizzes and a self-evaluation and planning tool to help teachers reflect on what they learned and what they still need to learn, encouraging them to keep learning!
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The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) launched a new Framework for Environmental and Social Management (FESM) to ensure that both people and the environment are protected... from any potential impacts of FAO programmes and projects.
“This Framework ensures that our projects do both “no harm” and support the transformation to more efficient, more inclusive, more resilient and more sustainable agrifood systems by upholding the highest international standards for risk management,” FAO Director-General QU Dongyu explained during a virtual event.
The Framework, which includes key elements of a people-centered approach and establishes environmental and social performance requirements for FAO programming, is also intended to ensure that all stakeholders, including local and indigenous communities, have ample opportunities to actively participate in projects’ activities and to voice their concerns about them.
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As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to threaten health and food systems around the world, the 2020 Global Nutrition Report calls on governments, bus...inesses and civil society to step up efforts to address malnutrition in all its forms.
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One of the many gender inequities in the health and care workforce that COVID-19 has exposed is around the fit and design of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). The rapid onset and scale of ...lass="attribute-to-highlight medbox">COVID-19 led to shortages of PPE in most countries, causing preventable infection and mortality among healthcare workers and others on the front lines. Even though most health workers are women, manufacturing specifications for medical PPE are usually drawn up based on the male body and there have been many reports of PPE not designed for women's bodies.
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Vaccines are powerful weapons in the fight against pandemic viruses as shown by responses to both the 2009 H1N1 influenza and the COVID-19 pandemic...s. However, planning for accessing, allocating and deploying vaccines in a pandemic situation is a complex endeavour, beset with multiple challenges at all levels – local, regional and global. The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have prepared this revised guidance document to assist countries update their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) by leveraging global learnings from past pandemic responses, including the recent COVID-19 vaccination effort. The development and testing of a NDVP would not only advance pandemic preparedness efforts but would also have benefits in terms of increasing national capabilities to manage other health emergencies which require emergency vaccination campaigns.
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Evidence-based psychological interventions are an important part of health, social, protection and education services and can help increase access to...n> effective mental health treatments and progression towards universal health coverage.
This manual provides managers and others responsible for planning and delivering services with practical guidance on how to implement manualized psychological interventions for adults, adolescents and children. It covers the five key implementation steps: make an implementation plan; adapt for context; prepare the workforce; identify, assess and support potential beneficiaries; and monitor and evaluate the service.
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Accessed on 21.05.2020
Considering a hotline? This set of tools will help you assess, set up and manage different types of channels to communicate with communities during humanitarian crises.
Background paper 11
The Independent Panel for Pandemic Preparedness and Response
May 2021