The roles and challenges of primary care practitioners in prevention and control of the outbreak of COVID-19

Abstract

Since December 2019, the outbreak of Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has rapidly swept across the country, posing great challenges to the public health in China. In the epidemic prevention and control, primary care practitioners play a very important role in patient triage, home-based visit, follow-up as well as screening at the checkpoints. However, due to the lack of necessary protective equipment and heavy workload, primary care practitioners are facing great challenges in containing the epidemic outbreak. Based on the relevant guidelines and practice in primary care, this article summarizes the challenges primary care practitioners encountered and coping strategies for containing the epidemic outbreak in primary care settings to provide reference for improvement of their working quality. Key words: Coronavirus infection; Coronavirus disease 2019; Community health service center; Primary physicians