To date, children have been spared from the direct health effects of the COVID-19 virus. They are the hidden victims of the pandemic rather than the face of it. Yet children around the world have had their lives upended because of actions taken to contain the disease. Families are facing heightened stress under lockdown with many experiencing financial insecurity. And children are missing out on life-saving vaccines and much-needed free meals because of the suspension of services. While others experience increasing threats to their safety and wellbeing as services that prevent and respond to violence, abuse and neglect are suspended. Many children, especially the most vulnerable, even risk losing their lives to preventable diseases because access to healthcare is disrupted. Measures taken by governments to contain and mitigate the pandemic are having persistent and far-reaching impacts on children’s lives.
This dashboard draws on periodic country office reporting against an evolving questionnaire, first initiated on 12 March 2020. Country Office responses rely on varying sources and in some cases best estimates combining multiple sources; figures may not accurately represent the full national response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the challenges in global tracking, this still represents important early indications of impacts on the disruption of essential services. The latest update to the dashboard presents highlights from 79 country offices reporting on the situation as of mid-May to 10 June (accounting for some delays in country office reporting). The dashboard also presents data gathered through other external sources on the evolving control and mitigation measures duly referenced. The next data collection will occur during the end of August 2020.
Navigate to a section on the left of the dashboard to view country- and regional-level data.
Visit also: UNICEF's COVID-19 and children data webpage.