This guidance is an update of WHO global influenza preparedness plan: the role of WHO and recommendations for national measures before and during pandemics, published March 2005 (WHO/CDS/CSR/GIP/2005.5).

This global guidance aims to facilitate systematic and harmonized data collection about, and monitoring of, public health and social measures (PHSM) policies implemented by governments during health emergencies. The guidance is intended for policy-makers, health authorities, responders and researchers in multiple sectors and at various levels responsible for responding to public health emergencies and developing PHSM policies, and provides key actions for PHSM policy monitoring in both preparedness and response. Th guidance details standardized approaches and actionable steps for establishing and maintaining a robust PHSM monitoring system, a taxonomy of PHSM categories for coherent and comparable policy monitoring, and a process for consistent and transparent data collection. The guidance facilitates the availability of context-specific and real-time PHSM data alongside other key data sets drawn on during public health events for PHSM decision making. This guidance will be accompanied by flexible and customizable online tools.

Social and physical distancing and restrictions on international travel (thereafter “social and movement measures”) have been introduced to reduce the risk of acquiring or spreading infection with COVID-19 in various community settings. Whilst the risk of infection to COVID-19 decreases, social and movement measures exacerbate the economic slowdown and can worsen socioeconomic inequalities. Calibrating social and movement measures is complex as it has direct and indirect health and economic impacts, across different subpopulations, now and in the future, and is characterized by uncertainty, urgency, need for multiple levels of decision-making. In this type of context, there is no one-size-fits-all strategy. But inclusive decision making, systematically informed by data and communicated clearly will promote transparency in the process, increase the legitimacy of the decisions and promote trust between the population and the decision-makers. The World Health Organization and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development describe, in their joint publication, a decision framework to assist countries as they continue to calibrate social and movement measures until there is widespread population coverage with the vaccine.