UNITED NATIONS, March 13 (Xinhua) -- Handwashing with soap, when done correctly, is critical in the fight against the novel coronavirus, but millions of people have no ready access to basic handwashing facilities, said the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) on Friday.
In total, only three out of five people worldwide have access to such facilities, it said.
As the pandemic continues its spread, the UNICEF is urging renewed efforts to provide access to this most basic of public health interventions around the world, said the fund in a press release.
"Handwashing with soap is one of the cheapest, most effective things you can do to protect yourself and others against coronavirus, as well as many other infectious diseases. Yet for billions, even this most basic of steps is simply out of reach," said Sanjay Wijesekera, UNICEF director of programs.
"It is far from a magic bullet. But it is important to make sure people know what steps they should take to keep themselves and their families safe, even as we continue our long-standing efforts to make basic hygiene and sanitation available to everyone."
In many parts of the world, children, parents, teachers, health care workers and other members of the community do not have access to basic handwashing facilities at home, in health care facilities, schools or elsewhere.
According to the latest estimates, 40 percent of the world's population, or 3 billion people, do not have a handwashing facility with water and soap at home. Nearly three-quarters of the people in the least developed countries lack basic handwashing facilities at home.
Almost half of schools in the world lacked a handwashing facility with water and soap, affecting 900 million school-age children. Over a third of schools worldwide and half of schools in the least developed countries have no place for children to wash their hands at all.
Urban populations are particularly at risk of viral respiratory infections due to population density and more frequent public gatherings in crowded spaces. People living in urban poor slums are particularly at risk. As a result, handwashing becomes even more important.
Yet in sub-Saharan Africa, almost two-thirds of people in urban areas lack access to handwashing. Nearly half of urban South Africans, for example, lack basic handwashing facilities at home with the richest urban dwellers nearly 12 times more likely to have access to handwashing facilities, said the UNICEF.
