The article is aligned with the "Sustainability, COVID-19 and staying focused on the longer term" chapter in the SSE report "Sweden through the Crisis", and sheds light on how the Covid-19 pandemic is amplifying social inequalities and hampering strategic, long-term investments into sustainability by firms and governments.

IN SHORT 
The pandemic is disproportionately affecting women and low income workers directly and indirectly. Significant reductions in infant and maternal health utilization have followed in the wake of the COVID-19 outbreak in emerging markets.
In addition to the rise in social inequalities, we expect Covid-19 to have negative impacts on the transition to more sustainable markets by reducing the ability and willingness of firms to make strategic investments.
We present health lessons from the Ebola pandemic and economic lessons from the first 6 months of the Covid pandemic. We argue that whilst firms and governments deal with the immediate impacts of the pandemic they must simultaneously protect and deploy resources to safeguard pathways for a sustainable economic transition.