The COVID-19 pandemic caused by the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) has presented itself as one of the greatest health challenges on a global scale at the beginning of this century. Insufficient scientific knowledge about the new coronavirus, its high speed of dissemination and the capacity to cause deaths in vulnerable populations has generated uncertainties about what would be the best strategies to use to face the pandemic in different parts of the world. In Brazil, the challenges are even greater, as little is known about the transmission characteristics of the new coronavirus in the context of great social inequality, with populations living in precarious housing and sanitation conditions, without systematic access to water and in a situation of overcrowding. According to the National Council of Health Secretaries (Conass), from the beginning of the pandemic in March until October 8 2020, Brazil recorded 148,957 deaths from COVID-19, and 5,028,444 infected individuals. Given this scenario, institutions such as the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) are extremely important in the fight against COVID-19 in Brazil. One of the initiatives of this institution was the creation of the ‘Observatory COVID-19 Fiocruz’ whose general objective is the development of integrated analyses, technologies, proposals and solutions to face the pandemic by COVID-19 by the Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS) and by Brazilian society. The observatory is structured in a collaborative way, allowing the initiatives and work already developed in the different laboratories, research groups and sectors of Fiocruz to develop their activities in an agile way, with internal and external cooperation networks for the production and dissemination of materials to face the pandemic. Its work dynamics involves the production of information, dashboards and analyses, the development of technologies and communication.