There is a fatal outbreak of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by a novel coronavirus named severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) [1]. The first case of COVID-19 was recorded in Wuhan, Hubei Province, China, in December 2019 and was said to be pneumonia of unknown cause [2]. The disease has since spread across many countries and the World Health Organization (WHO) declared the disease a global pandemic in February 2020 [3]. Over 5,590,358 cases of COVID-19 infections have been confirmed globally and over 347,907 mortalities have since been recorded globally [4]. During the time this study was being conducted, the most affected countries were China, Italy, France, Spain, the United Kingdom, and the USA [5]. In African countries, however, the number of cases has been on the rise sharply and the negative socio-economic and health effects of the pandemic are estimated to be severe due to relatively poor health care systems and small economies in most of the countries. As the pandemic began to take its toll on Africa, it’s devastating impact was anticipated [6, 7].

In Zambia, the first confirmed cases of COVID-19 were reported on 18^th March 2020, and since then, the number of confirmed cases has been increasing steadily [8]. In order to curb the spread of the disease, a scalable national response has seen the activation of a public health emergency response mechanism spearheaded by the Ministry of Health through the Zambia National Public Health Institute (ZNPHI) [9]. Key activities in this response include enhancing disease surveillance, health human resource capital development, case detection and management in designated public healthcare facilities, restrictions on social gatherings and non-essential travel, disease prevention, and health promotion among other strategies [9].

The rate at which the disease was spreading globally, WHO feared that most health systems would be strained particularly in Africa, and thus there was a need for a multisectoral action to find containment solutions. One of the key sectors to consider as part of the solutions was the community pharmacies [10]. According to the International Pharmaceutical Federation (FIP), pharmacists and the pharmacy workforce at community and hospital pharmacies and clinical biology laboratories are capable of preventing the spread of the new coronavirus disease, advising the public, and supporting the efficient management of infection by healthcare systems. Since pharmacies are often the first point of contact with the health system, the FIP made a call to national governments to support the sector in these roles and to count on pharmacists worldwide as key partners in the global effort to contain the outbreak [10].

Community pharmacists were usually the first points of contact for members of the community seeking primary health care services and access to medicines and pharmaceutical products in Zambia [11, 12]. With cases of COVID-19 on the rise in Zambia, there was an urgent need for health system managers to enhance the national response by maximising the use of currently available health workforce and resources. It is therefore vital at this time of the pandemic that existing services are comprehensively reviewed and fully utilise any unrealised potential among healthcare providers across the continuum of care. Community pharmacy is one of a number of health professions that has a key role to play in responding to the current pandemic. As the scope of community pharmacy practice varies considerably across countries, it is important to examine ways in which the profession can assist with the public health response to COVID-19 and maintaining the continuity of healthcare services [13].

Other countries have enhanced this sector’s participation in the fight against the pandemic to varying degrees. In Taiwan, the government, in their national response had to allow all hospitals, clinics, and pharmacies to have access to a patients’ travel history in order to curb the spread of the deadly infection [14]. Community pharmacists can reinforce mitigation behaviours by applying the health belief model (HBM) [15]. This commentary provides an overview of the HBM and offers suggestions on how community pharmacists can use it as a guide to patient communication in these uncertain contexts [15]. Putt has stressed that people may not think of a pharmacist as an essential healthcare worker because they do not necessarily see them running around the emergency room at their local hospital, but these health care providers are more essential than people might think [16]. Pharmacists are working on the frontline to ensure patient safety while putting their lives at risk every single day. In the current situation with the COVID19 pandemic, community pharmacists work as frontline workers but receive less support including inadequate personal protective equipment (PPE) [10]. Anyone can walk up to a pharmacy counter, making the pharmacist the most accessible health care worker to patients across the country, but also putting the pharmacist at the highest risk for contracting the virus [16]. As stated by the FIP, community pharmacists have a key role in preventing the spread of SARS-CoV-2 [10]. They are charged with key responsibilities of informing, advising and educating the community, maintaining a stable supply of pharmaceuticals and personal hygiene products, and screening of suspected cases of COVID-19, and making the appropriate referral as required [10]. Consequently, community pharmacists can contribute to the early detection and appropriate referral of possible cases of the COVID-19, with the goal to contribute to the prevention of the overall community spread of the virus in Colombia [17]. Rural communities are often isolated from large health centres with the capabilities of handling an outbreak such as COVID-19. Rural patients also face unique challenges such as extended travel time to an acute care facility, hazardous terrain, and the lack of reliable or public transportation. These geographic challenges may cause patients to postpone or go without accessing needed health services. Amidst the avalanche of reports concerning the spread of the virus, there is also recognition that pharmacists are in a unique position to make essential public health contributions, especially in rural areas, to address the shortage of primary care providers, nurses, and physicians [18].

Community pharmacists, therefore, need to position themselves to not only provide pharmaceutical services but further prevent the spread of the virus thereby contributing greatly to combating the pandemic in Zambia. As a starting point, we assessed the preparedness of pharmacists serving in the community retail pharmacy sector to participate in the frontline national response to COVID-19 in Zambia. Specifically, we determined their knowledge about COVID-19, technical guidelines for case detection, and screening, including availability and use of PPE in the pharmacy. This information could help to inform future decisions about the restructuring of existing health services by governments, public health bodies, and policymakers in response to public health crises such as COVID-19. This information could help inform health system managers’ future decisions and considerations about prudent use of the available health workforce, restructuring of existing health services, and response strategies by ZNPHI and other state actors involved in the response to public health emergencies such as COVID-19.