In November 2020 the LabCoP stakeholders met online to convene the 2020 Face-to-Face virtual meeting. LabCoP’s 4th Annual Meeting aimed to assess the progress of LabCoP countries’ action plans and the outcome of ongoing interventions; discuss laboratory system strengthening across diseases through reviewing challenges and best practices in maintaining routine viral load (VL), early infant diagnosis (EID) and tuberculosis (TB) testing during the COVID-19 pandemic; and introduce upcoming LabCoP themes  addressing the laboratory system at large. This meeting report summarises the key takeaways from the meeting, including the urgent needs to scale up testing across disease areas, optimise diagnostic networks in response to the COVID-19 pandemic’s exacerbation of pre-existing gaps in laboratory systems, and strengthen monitoring and evaluation (M&E) systems to measure the progress. This information may also be of relevance to those interested in public-private partnerships.