Ensure protection of health workers
Ensure protection of health workers As part of the right to health, the ICESCR provides that governments should create conditions that “would assure to all medical service and medical attention in the event of sickness.” Governments have an obligation to minimize the risk of occupational accidents and diseases including by ensuring workers have health information and adequate protective clothing and equipment. This means providing health workers and others involved in the COVID-19 response with appropriate training in infection control and with appropriate protective gear. Combating the spread of COVID-19 requires that health facilities have adequate water, sanitation, hygiene, healthcare waste management, and cleaning. A 2019 baseline report by WHO and the UN Children’s Fund (UNICEF) found that “[a]n estimated 896 million people use health care facilities with no water service and 1.5 billion use facilities with no ...