No soap, no water: Many lack basic safety
Outbreak has infected some 200,000 people and killed 9,000 across the globe
Paris, March 19: As nations around the world fight the coronavirus pandemic with mass lockdowns and travel bans, UN experts warn that some three billion people lack even the most basic weapons to protect themselves: soap and running water. The outbreak has infected some 200,000 people and killed 9,000, scorching through populations across the globe after emerging in China late last year.
While Europe become the centre battle against the closing borders has of the virus, and sequestering millions of people in their homes, concerns are rising for developing nations with fragile healthcare systems.
Countries across Africa and Asia have heavily restricted travel, imposed quarantines and closed schools, with fears for impoverished communities as infections begin to grow.
But one of the most fundamental practices individuals can adopt to shield themselves from COVID-19 — thorough hand washing — remains inaccessible for many millions.
Using household survey data, the United Nations Children’s Fund estimates 40 percent of the world's population, or three billion people, do not the means to wash hands at home.
Sam Godfrey, have their
UNICEF chief of water and sanitation in east and southern Africa, said communities lack easily accessible running water, are unable to buy soap or do not realise its vital role in preventing illness.
“Even for the frontline workers, the health workers, there remains a challenge also in terms of understanding of the importance of hand washing,” said.
With the first infections in the region often coming from those who have travelled internationally, Godfrey described the outbreak as “almost like a rich man's disease for Africa, which, of course, will end up with the poor man suffering the most”.
Those living in tightlypacked slums, as well as the large refugee populations in camps and urban areas in the Horn of Africa, are particularly at risk because they may be malnourished or have underlying health problems. And they often lack sanitation.
In sub-Saharan Africa, 63 percent of people in urban areas — 258 million people — lack access to hand washing, according to the UNICEF figures. —