Ensaio acerca das curvas de sobrecarga da COVID-19 sobre a atenção primária

The current COVID-19 pandemic has been causing a health system burden worldwide and compromising the different domains that make up these systems. One of these domains is, remarkably, Primary Health Care – PHC, which is responsible, in Brazil, for making the first contact with the user who seeks Brazil’s Sistema Unico de Saude – SUS. Thus, it is clear that a large number of cases of the New Coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) increases the demand for PHC work, which, at long last, contributes to the system's saturation and makes it even harder to keep on carrying out the consultations/follow-ups that were already part of their agenda, arising and worsening the clinical comorbidities. Therefore, this article proposes the model of the “PHC’s three-wave overload” and displays the role of PHC at the present moment on mitigating the impacts of this high demand and assuring to the population the principles that guide it. Taking into consideration the importance and value that Primary Care has in assisting the population, this might lead us to conclude that, in addition to supplying spontaneous demand, PHC is a crucial tool in flattening out contagion waves and also in containing the indirect repercussions of SARS-CoV-2.