COVID-19 is here to stay, unless governments commit to zero COVID-19 strategies. Short of this, the future course of the pandemic will play out different scenarios such as low-grade continuing infectivity, gradually infecting more younger people; local and multiple outbreaks on a small scale; or disastrous uncontrollable second waves in many countries.

The pandemic highlights pre-existing ill health due to social and economic inequalities. We do not have a pandemic problem, but a social problem that is reflected by the pandemic. We should extract something positive from this social experience. The measures taken could improve the sense of common citizenship, social participation and mutual responsibilities among people from all social backgrounds, within countries and internationally.

In this respite for many countries, ‘we should not use this time to celebrate, but to plan’ (Cole 2020). In the best traditions of emergency preparedness, we should ‘hope for the best, but plan for the worst’. We call on all governments to meet these needs in this new and more challenging phase of the pandemic.