Staying safe while waiting for the vaccine: what we need to do

Societies are organizing themselves to keep the COVID-19 virus at bay for the foreseeable future. The World Health Organization (WHO) has proposed that every country implement a comprehensive set of measures to prevent infection, detect cases, interrupt transmission, control clusters, suppress outbreaks and reduce mortality. Throughout the world, four systems capabilities are emerging that are important for societies to get ahead of the virus and become COVID-19 ready. First: understand the pattern of infection locally and act on it effectively: assess the status of the outbreak; act rapidly and robustly to interrupt transmission. Second: enable people to be active participants in their own responses. Third: focus on the places where people are most at risk of infection. Fourth: assess the performance of responses to COVID-19 infection: detecting cases, interrupting chains of transmission, minimizing adverse consequences, protecting the most vulnerable and ensuring opportunities for sustainable livelihoods and well-being for all, leaving no-one behind. These four capabilities are being woven together within societies: successful weaving can be helped through focusing on three interlinked elements: making information available; assessing and reducing risk; and being able to suppress outbreaks rapidly. This means involving everyone in the response and having strong public health defences. Governments, authorities, public health teams, employers and community organizations make it possible for us to stay safe but, in the end, what happens is up to all of us, individually and collectively. If we are to live well with the threat of COVID-19, solidarity really does matter.