Guidelines on Preventing the Spread of COVID19
The COVID-19 outbreak has presented a unique set of challenges for different segments of the population, especially for medical personnel and social welfare staff working at the frontlines of this global crisis.
Organizations working directly with members of vulnerable communities or with individuals who require special care face a set of challenges around social distancing and regular safety measures that are harder to combat. Contact between caregivers and people with disabilities is inevitable and many of these individuals are in need of constant care. People with certain kinds of disabilities are also at a higher risk of contracting the virus owing to compromised bodily functions. These are exacerbated by the fact that many of these institutions and facilities have low access to resources and may be located in areas that are poorly served by infrastructure and essential services.
The toolkit aims to provide basic guidelines on managing facilities that face issues of space constraints, lack of resources and are unable to adequately follow social distancing norms and offers low-cost alternatives to otherwise resource-intensive precautionary measures.
This toolkit was developed based on insights from Dr Ronnie Mohanty (Retd.), Group Captain, Indian Armed Forces, one of the key medical advisors for the SELCO Foundation COVID Response Task Force. This document also leverages on insights and 60 years of expertise of our partner Association of People with Disability, and specific guidance of Dr NS Senthil Kumar. Last but not the least, a special thank you to Mr Saibal Guha from Voice of World (a 28-year-old organization based out of Kolkata, India) for sharing his administrative experience of running an institution with over 300 children with multiple disabilities and give his practical experience on implementation of these guidelines.
This toolkit includes the following:
- Personal protective practices
- Cleanliness and hygiene among facility occupants
- Cleaning and disinfecting your facility
- Managing devices and equipment while caring for persons with disabilities
- Medical preparedness during a lockdown
- Visitors at the facility
- How to set up an isolation ward
- Using a mask the right way
- Handling produce safely
- Using hand sanitizers effectively
- Washing your hands the right way
