Technical brief 3 March 2020
1. Introduction and background In late 2019, an acute respiratory disease emerged, known as novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pathogen responsible for COVID-19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, also referred to as the COVID-19 virus), a member of the coronavirus family. In response to the growing spread of COVID-19, WHO has published a number of technical guidance documents on specific topics, including infection prevention and control (IPC). These documents are available at https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus2019/technical-guidance/infection-prevention-and-control.
This technical brief supplement the IPC documents by referencing and summarizing the WHO guidance on water, sanitation and health care waste that is relevant to viruses, including coronaviruses. This technical brief is written, in particular, for water and sanitation practitioners and providers. It is also for health care providers who want to know more about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) risks and practices.
The provision of safe water, sanitation and hygienic conditions is essential to protecting human health during all infectious disease outbreaks, including the COVID-19 outbreak. Ensuring good and consistently applied WASH and waste management practices in communities, homes, schools, marketplaces and health care facilities will further help to prevent human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
The most important information concerning WASH and the COVID-19 virus is summarized here.
Frequent and proper hand hygiene is one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus. WASH practitioners should work to enable more frequent and regular hand hygiene by improving facilities and using proven behaviour change techniques. WHO guidance on the safe management of drinking-water and sanitation services applies to the COVID-19 outbreak. Extra measures are not needed. In particular, disinfection will facilitate more rapid die-off of the COVID-19 virus. Many co-benefits will be realized by safely managing water and sanitation services and applying good hygiene practices. Such efforts will prevent many other infectious diseases, which cause millions of deaths each year.
Currently, there is no evidence about the survival of the COVID-19 virus in drinking-water or sewage. The morphology and chemical structure of the COVID-19 virus are similar to those of other surrogate human coronaviruses for which there are data about both survival in the environment and effective inactivation measures. Thus, this brief draws upon the existing evidence base and, more generally, existing WHO guidance on how to protect against viruses in sewage and drinking-water. This document is based on the current knowledge of the COVID-19 virus and it will be updated as new information becomes available.
to read full document please click on
/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/WHO-2019-NcOV-IPC_WASH-2020_1-eng.pdf
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Technical brief 3 March 2020
1. Introduction and background In late 2019, an acute respiratory disease emerged, known as novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The pathogen responsible for COVID-19 is severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2, also referred to as the COVID-19 virus), a member of the coronavirus family. In response to the growing spread of COVID-19, WHO has published a number of technical guidance documents on specific topics, including infection prevention and control (IPC). These documents are available at https://www.who.int/emergencies/diseases/novel-coronavirus2019/technical-guidance/infection-prevention-and-control.
This technical brief supplement the IPC documents by referencing and summarizing the WHO guidance on water, sanitation and health care waste that is relevant to viruses, including coronaviruses. This technical brief is written, in particular, for water and sanitation practitioners and providers. It is also for health care providers who want to know more about water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) risks and practices.
The provision of safe water, sanitation and hygienic conditions is essential to protecting human health during all infectious disease outbreaks, including the COVID-19 outbreak. Ensuring good and consistently applied WASH and waste management practices in communities, homes, schools, marketplaces and health care facilities will further help to prevent human-to-human transmission of the COVID-19 virus.
The most important information concerning WASH and the COVID-19 virus is summarized here.
Frequent and proper hand hygiene is one of the most important measures that can be used to prevent infection with the COVID-19 virus. WASH practitioners should work to enable more frequent and regular hand hygiene by improving facilities and using proven behaviour change techniques. WHO guidance on the safe management of drinking-water and sanitation services applies to the COVID-19 outbreak. Extra measures are not needed. In particular, disinfection will facilitate more rapid die-off of the COVID-19 virus. Many co-benefits will be realized by safely managing water and sanitation services and applying good hygiene practices. Such efforts will prevent many other infectious diseases, which cause millions of deaths each year.
Currently, there is no evidence about the survival of the COVID-19 virus in drinking-water or sewage. The morphology and chemical structure of the COVID-19 virus are similar to those of other surrogate human coronaviruses for which there are data about both survival in the environment and effective inactivation measures. Thus, this brief draws upon the existing evidence base and, more generally, existing WHO guidance on how to protect against viruses in sewage and drinking-water. This document is based on the current knowledge of the COVID-19 virus and it will be updated as new information becomes available.
to read full document please click on
/wp-content/uploads/2026/07/WHO-2019-NcOV-IPC_WASH-2020_1-eng.pdf
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