https://doi.org/10.3828/tpr.2020.74 Uchendu Eugene Chigbu and Victor Udemezue Onyebueke Viewpoint The COVID-19 pandemic in informal settlements: (re)considering urban planning interventions Uchendu Eugene Chigbu is Associate Professor in Land Administration, Department of Land and Property Sciences, Namibia University of Science and Technology, No. 13 Jackson Kaujeua Street, Private Bag 13388, Windhoek, Namibia; Victor Udemezue Onyebueke is Senior Lecturer, University of Nigeria Faculty of Environmental Studies, Department of Urban and Regional Planning, Enugu, Nsukka, Enugu 400241, Nigeria; email: ue.chigbu@tum.de; victor.onyebueke@unn.edu.ng How can modern city planning, a profession that emerged in the late nineteenth century with a goal of improving the health of the least well-off urban residents, but lost this focus throughout the twentieth century, return to its health and social justice roots? (Corburn, 2009, 1) The COVID-19 outbreak is the latest tumultuous and wide-ranging shock to hit the world. Due to its unprecedented spread and high morbidity and mortality rates, the World Health Organisation (WHO) declared it a global pandemic on 11 March 2020. Since then the COVID-19 pandemic (CP) has had devastating impacts around the world. As at 18 May 2020, CP has infected 4.6 million people and resulted in 311,847 deaths globally (WHO, 2020). Clearly, cities are the centres of this new pandemic, but the worst fears of unprecedented health havoc rest on informal settlements (or slums) around the world. But how justifed are such fears? Slums are home to nearly 25 per cent of the global population (UN Habitat, 2010). With characteristically high densities, economic deprivation, infrastructure defcits and heavy disease burdens, they have been labelled both ultra-vulnerable and unhealthy places (Ezeh et al., 2017; Raju and Ayeb-Karlsson, 2020). The threat of the pandemic is exposing some pertinent urban issues. Apart from the yawning gaps in the living conditions between formal settlements and slums, it has thrown into sharp contrast the persisting health inequities and social injustices in cities (Corburn and Sverdlik, 2019). Furthermore, it has highlighted the criticality of public health–urban planning connections. In view of the Sustainable Development Goal 11, for cities and human settlements to be made inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable, this Viewpoint contributes ideas for mitigating the COVID-19 threat in slums. We have structured the Viewpoint in line with its objectives. First, we begin by unpacking the predominance of informal