DETROIT – According to a report from the World Health Organization and United Nations Children’s Fund, 43 percent of schools around the world lacked basic access to hand washing facilities before the coronavirus pandemic.

Hand washing is critical to keeping school students and staff safe during the pandemic.

Findings of the report reveal around 818 million children lack basic hand washing facilities at their schools. The report also showed of that number 295 million are from sub-Saharan Africa.

Worldwide, more than 21 million people have been confirmed infected and over 771,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The true numbers are certainly much higher, because of limited testing, different ways nations count the dead and deliberate under-reporting by some governments.

JHU reports more than 1.7 million have recovered in the U.S., with more than 5.3 million cases reported across the country. More than 169,000 have died in the U.S.

Locally here in Michigan as of Sunday morning there were 92,155 confirmed cases and 6,318 deaths.

Key findings from report:

• Of the 818 million children who lacked a basic handwashing service at their school, 355 million went to schools which had facilities with water but no soap, and 462 million to schools which had no facilities or water available for handwashing.
• In the 60 countries at highest risk of health and humanitarian crises due to COVID-19, 3 in 4 children lacked basic handwashing service at their school at the start of the outbreak; half of all children lacked basic water service; and more than half lacked basic sanitation service.
• 1 in 3 schools worldwide had either limited drinking water service or no drinking water service at all.
• 698 million children lacked basic sanitation service at their school.