COVID-19 resource centre

The COVID-19 pandemic puts an extraordinary and unprecedented burden on health systems, organisations, and professionals. Never before have we faced a global crisis of this magnitude, one that challenges every country’s capacity to deliver health care services. 

Health Care Without Harm has developed this webpage as a resource center for our partners around the world, for members of our Global Green and Healthy Hospitals network, and for the broader community engaged at the intersection of environment, climate change, and health.

Our priorities are to first support the work professionals and organisations are doing on the frontlines by providing strategies, solutions, and resources that address the unique challenges posed by COVID-19.

Second, together with many others, we are exploring the long-term influence of this pandemic on human and planetary health in order to begin to collectively chart a course for the future.

Our teams have curated a list of resources and guidelines produced by Health Care Without Harm, its partners and multilateral organisations to offer solutions to some of the challenges this crisis brings. We will regularly update this page with new information.

Table of contents

Healthcare operations

Waste

  1. Health Care Without Harm | Coronavirus update: Health care waste management factsheet [EN] [ES] [PL]
  2. Health Care Without Harm | Training video on coronavirus health care waste management
  3. Health Care Without Harm | Op-Ed and infographic - Philippines: Managing COVID-19 - related health care waste (Produced by Health Care Without Harm SE Asia)
  4. Health Care Without Harm | Global Green and Healthy Hospitals (GGHH) waste guidance document
  5. World Health Organization (WHO) | Water, sanitation, hygiene and waste management for COVID-19
  6. Department of Labor, Occupational Safety and Health Administration (U.S) | COVID-19 Control and Prevention including solid waste 

Disinfectants

  1. Health Care Without Harm | Coronavirus update: Disinfection tunnels factsheet [English] [Spanish]
  2. WHO | Recommended handrub formulations

Infection Prevention and Control (IPC) in healthcare

  1. WHO | Infection prevention and control during health care when novel coronavirus (nCoV) infection is suspected 
  2. WHO | Online trainings on facility design, country preparedness, clinical management and more

Occupational health and safety

  1. United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) | Protecting yourself from COVID-19 in the workplace
  2. United States National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) | Health and safety resources for workers who may be at risk of exposure to COVID-19

Personal Protection Equipment (PPE)

  1. WHO | Advice on the use of masks in the community, during home care and in healthcare settings in the context of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak
  2. WHO | Rational use of personal protective equipment for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19)
  3. United Kingdom | National Infection Prevention and Control Manual: Best Practice - Putting On and Removing PPE
  4. U.S. Center for Disease Control | Decontamination and reuse of filtering facepiece respirators using contingency and crisis capacity strategies (USA)
  5. ECRI | Safety of Extended Use and Reuse of N95 Respirators
  6. N95DECON research group | Three approaches to N95 decontamination for the COVID19 pandemic: Heat and humidity, UV-C, 3.Hydrogen peroxide gas vapor or plasma
  7. ECDC | Report: Cloth masks and mask sterilisation as options in case of shortage of surgical masks and respirators (European Center for Disease Prevention and Control) (EU)

Cross-border cooperation

  1. European Commission new guidelines on EU emergency assistance for cross-border cooperation in healthcare, for sharing hospital beds and medical staff when possible.

Procurement

European Commission | Online event: EIC ePitching to procurers on COVID19: co-creating innovative solutions to support European public & private procurers on COVID19 (EU)

Mental health

  1. WHO | Mental health and psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic 

General information, context, and education

General information

  1. WHO | Main webpage: Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) Pandemic

Coronavirus and air pollution

  1. World Economic Forum | The deadly link between COVID-19 and air pollution (Co-authored by Arvind Kumar, Founder and Managing Trustee, Lung Care Foundation of India, Jane Burston, Executive Director, Clean Air Fund, and Josh Karliner, International Director for Program and Strategy, Health Care Without Harm)
  2. Health Care Without Harm | India: Dr. Arvind Kumar from the Lung Care Foundation discusses COVID-19 and air pollution
  3. New York Times | New Research Links Air Pollution to Higher Coronavirus Death Rates | Study materials from Harvard School of Public Health

Coronavirus and climate change

  1. Skoll Foundation and Health Care Without Harm | Virtual Skoll World Forum session - Coronavirus and climate crisis: Mobilizing health for common solutions
  2. Health Care Without Harm | Coronavirus and the climate crisis: Common causes and shared solutions - In-depth analysis
  3. Climate Outreach | Communicating climate change during the coronavirus crisis - what the evidence says

Education

  1. Health Care Without Harm | India: Comic book for children to learn about COVID-19

Policy and systems change: the road ahead

Resilience and Sustainability

  1. World Bank | Coronavirus sustainability checklist for policy makers
  2. Health Care Without Harm | India - Webinar for health partners on COVID-19: Pathway to recovery (Organized by SELCO Foundation, Public Health Foundation of India, Centre for Chronic Disease Control, Shakti Foundation and Health Care Without Harm)  
  3. Boston Globe | Green hospitals may be better prepared to deal with Covid-19
  4. EURACTIV | Op-Ed: Which world do we want after COVID-19? (Co-authored by Frans Timmermans, Executive Vice-President of the European Commission, and Bertrand Piccard, Founder and Chairman of the Solar Impulse Foundation)

Public policies | Waste

  1. UNEP | Waste management an essential public service in the fight to beat COVID-19
  2. European Federation of Waste Management and Environmental Services | Member States Must Recognise Waste as “Essential Public Services”

Public policies | Hand hygiene and disinfectants

  1. WHO | Recommendations to Member States to improve hand hygiene practices by providing universal access to public hand hygiene stations to help prevent the transmission of the COVID-19 virus

Virtual Skoll World Forum session - Coronavirus and climate crisis: Mobilizing health for common solutions

  1. Session recording
  2. Graphic representation of the session
  3. Poll results and audience
  4. COVID-19 Narratives, a set of ongoing online briefings by Dr. David Nabarro
  5. Collective strength in a time of plague: article Gary Cohen, President and Co-Founder of Health Care Without Harm and moderator of the online session. Published by The Skoll Foundation.

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