SANITARY, HYGIENIC AND ORGANIZATIONAL CRITERIA FOR REDUCING THE RISK OF COVID-19

Novel coronavirus (SARS-COV-2) was identified in December 2019 in the People's Republic of China, and it started emerging as an international healthcare emergency. COVID-19 pandemic might represent the tip of the iceberg and is the responsibility of all public healthcare authorities and experts to develop an adequate response using the right protocols and instruments to ensure public safety.

To ensure safety and to improve public health, we developed a risk assessment criteria (RAC) that combine all the necessary preventive elements (sanitary, hygienic, and organizational). RAC is a reliable assessment method based on the following sanitary-hygienic criteria: distance from the infectious source, contact time, and the magnitude of the contact hazard. Furthermore, we suggested an occupational classification system according to the coronavirus COVID-19 infectious risk (high risk, medium risk, and low risk).

To reduce the spread of coronavirus infections, we also proposed the use of the following sanitary-hygienic principles: time protection (the shorter the time of contact with potential carriers of a mild form of a disease, the lower the infectious risk), distance protection (compliance with social distancing), and impact scale protection (the fewer the contacts with possible asymptomatic carriers, the lower the infectious risk).

To minimize the spread of mass epidemics and infectious diseases, we believe that it is essential to implement a preventive action plan (PAP) that includes the following measures: reconsidering architectural standards; designing and building modular hospitals and modular equipment; mandatory self-isolation; and preparing a professional workforce. This action plan can be used to improve the readiness of public health authorities on countering biological threats in the short, medium, and long terms.