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Primary Health Care in Pandemics: Barriers, Challenges and Opportunities

COVID-19 has become a major global public health threat. It started from Wuhan a province of China in December 2019 and has spread in every country of the globe with over 100 million people currently infected and over three million deaths as of May 2021. Nearly a year on, with many town and cities are in lockdown and with all public health measures to minimize transmission of the virus SARS-COV-2 and the scientific achievements with many vaccines developed in record time, the transmission in the second wave is still strong with new variants of the virus emerging. The pandemic has caused a serious impact on the economic, social, political, and cultural dynamics of people, globally. The majority of people with mild and moderate symptoms of COVID-19 seek primary care (PC) service as the entry point for getting medical intervention, reducing flow to hospital care. Currently, primary care settings are facing major challenges including lack of funds, poor infrastructure in some countries, and shortage of health care workers and equipment. Most, if not all primary care centers are not designed to separate people with the virus. The pandemic so far shows that strengthening primary care as the first point of contact with the health system is vital. The health systems of the future cannot be resilient without strong primary care for all, capable of meeting population health needs and aspiration for good health and well-being. Key words: COVID-19, Pandemics, Epidemic, Primary Health Care, Primary Care Services