On 11 March 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the COVID-19 outbreak a global pandemic and called on states to take urgent actions to tackle it. The response of governments in Eastern Europe and Central Asia has ranged from the introduction of strict measures to stop the spread of the virus to official denial. In this unprecedented health emergency, Amnesty International calls on all governments and other actors involved to put human rights at the heart of their responses to the pandemic.