New guidance from the World Health Organization will help countries keep essential health services running whilst taking measures to keep people safe in the COVID-19 pandemic. Most health systems are facing challenges of increased demand for care of people with COVID-19, compounded by fear, misinformation and limitations on movement that disrupt the delivery of health care for all conditions. Countries must find ways to keep people safe and ensure the delivery of services such as emergency care for conditions like heart attacks and injury; immunization to prevent outbreaks; treatment for infectious diseases like HIV, malaria and tuberculosis; and screening and treatment for noncommunicable diseases like cancer and diabetes.

Maintaining essential health services: operational guidance for the COVID-19 context recommends practical actions that countries can take at national, sub regional and local levels to reorganize and safely maintain access to high-quality, essential health services. It also outlines sample indicators for monitoring the maintenance of essential health services and describes considerations about when to stop and restart services as COVID-19 transmission waxes and wanes.