PRIMARY CARE STRATEGIES AND CHALLENGES IN ADDRESSING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction: Sars-Cov-2 is a highly transmissible virus, with a large number of sick and occasionally infected individuals, which represents a risk of overload for the provision of care to symptomatic and more severe cases, which may have repercussions. in the strangulation of the health system and significantly increase the lethality of the disease. Objective: this research aimed to identify and understand the main challenges and strategies of Primary Care in facing the COVID-19 pandemic. Methodology: this study was characterized as an integrative literature review, with a descriptive and qualitative approach, which took place through the survey of scientific articles that were related to the objective of the study. Results and discussions: Articles published between the years 2019 to 2022 were included, available in full, without language restriction; in addition to theses, dissertations and monographs. A total of 745 articles were found, in which all had their titles and abstracts read, after that, 615 articles were excluded for not meeting the eligibility criteria, leaving 130 articles that were carefully read in full, after full reading, 7 articles were selected to be tabulated and characterized, following the PICO strategy. Final considerations: From the beginning of the pandemic, the strategies to face the health emergency around the world prioritized hospital responses, approaching almost exclusively the most serious cases of the virus and, there was not so much emphasis on other levels of health care, which ended up neglecting the importance of PHC.