Open Journal of Social Sciences, 2021, 9, 1-14 https://www.scirp.org/journal/jss ISSN Online: 2327-5960 ISSN Print: 2327-5952 DOI: 10.4236/jss.2021.97001 Jul. 8, 2021 1 Open Journal of Social Sciences COVID-19 Preventative Measures: Lessons for Public Health Policy Shadreck Balisi 1* , Montlenyane Madisa 2 1 School of Social Sciences, Department of Public Administration, Botswana Open University, Gaborone, Botswana 2 School of Social Sciences, Department of Public Health and Nursing Science, Botswana Open University, Gaborone, Botswana Abstract The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has led to an unprecedented global public health crisis. COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on January 30, 2020 and a pandemic on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organisation (WHO). Following the COVID-19 outbreak, WHO and other public health organisations developed preventive guidelines against the disease. Using desktop research, this paper looks at current COVID-19 preventive measures and highlights some lessons for mandatory public health policy measures. The paper begins by giving a brief account on the background to coronavirus disease 2019, its modes of trans- mission, as well as current preventive measures against the disease. The pa- per concludes by recommending mandatory public health policy measures that need to be adopted to prevent, control and manage current and future similar outbreaks. In particular, considering the current COVID-19 preven- tative measures, the paper advances some recommendations on priority areas that could be adopted, maintained and sustained at policy level to pro- vide direction on prevention and control of transmissible diseases. The priority areas recommended include but not limited to, risk assessment, community education, social and physical distancing strategic interventions, disinfection measures as well as the provision of Personal Protective Equip- ment (PPE). Keywords COVID-19, Preventative, Measures, Lessons, Public Policy 1. Introduction This paper looks at current COVID-19 preventative measures and highlights How to cite this paper: Balisi, S., & Madisa, M. (2021). COVID-19 Preventative Meas- ures: Lessons for Public Health Policy. Open Journal of Social Sciences, 9, 1-14. https://doi.org/10.4236/jss.2021.97001 Received: May 25, 2021 Accepted: July 5, 2021 Published: July 8, 2021 Copyright © 2021 by author(s) and Scientific Research Publishing Inc. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution International License (CC BY 4.0). http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Open Access