WaterAid's hygiene response to COVID-19

The COVID-19 global pandemic has been a monumental public health emergency, creating high levels of public anxiety and devastating impacts on people’s health, education and livelihoods. Frequent and thorough handwashing with soap and water, together with wearing masks and maintaining physical distancing, have been the    most    effective    ways    to    prevent    the    spread     of COVID-19, and other infectious diseases. It was evident throughout the pandemic that hygiene behaviour change is critical in all settings. Governments and partners should not wait for another health crisis to invest and promote hygiene behaviours at scale together with the COVID-19 vaccine. Over the past year, WaterAid have been leveraging our ongoing hygiene behaviour change programmes across Asia, Africa and Latin America to respond to COVID-19, primarily focusing on hygiene behaviour change – including handwashing with soap. We proactively scaled-up our hygiene behaviour change work through government-led mechanisms in 26 countries.