UN says 43 percent of schools lack basic handwashing

GENEVA: Some 43 percent of schools worldwide entered the Covid-19 pandemic lacking basic soap-and-water hand-washing facilities, the UN said Thursday, deeming it a key condition for schools to reopen safely. The World Health Organization (WHO) and the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF) said that 818 million children were affected, putting them at increased risk of being infected with Covid-19 and other transmittable diseases.

Of those, 355 million went to schools which had facilities with water but no soap, while the rest had no facilities or water available for hand-washing at all, the UN agencies said in a joint report. In the 60 countries at highest risk of health and humanitarian crises due to Covid-19, the report said three in four children lacked basic hand-washing facilities at school at the start of the pandemic.

"Global school closures since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic have presented an unprecedented challenge to children's education and wellbeing," said UNICEF executive director Henrietta Fore.