As the backbone of health systems, primary health care is where smart investments and improvements in accessibility, availability, and quality are direly needed—not only to prevent and manage COVID-19, but also to protect against future outbreaks and accelerate progress toward health for all. We must work across sectors to protect communities by maintaining essential health services, leveraging ingenuity and innovation to adapt primary health care, and ultimately building stronger, more resilient health systems.

In this brief, we present the work we are doing in partnership with governments and communities around the world to help reduce the impact of COVID-19 and protect the essential services and opportunities that can accelerate long-needed shifts toward more people-centered and multidisciplinary primary health care systems that will last long past when this crisis abates.