Introduction
Pharmacists are trusted members of multidisciplinary healthcare teams and routinely encounter patients at community pharmacies.1 The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to transformation and optimization of pharmaceutical services. As one of the most highly accessible healthcare professionals, community pharmacists are often the first point of contact in many health systems for the local communities who require health-related advice on COVID-19.2 In tandem with physicians’ practices rescheduling planned appointments for non-essential care, community pharmacies have now become the sole entry points to the primary healthcare services in many countries. Hence, it is essential that community pharmacists possess sufficient knowledge and information regarding COVID-19 to advise their patients, respond to enquiries, and be proactive in executing interventions to prevent the transmission of COVID-19 in communities.
In contrast to large healthcare facilities, community pharmacies do not have periodical, rigorous cleaning and disinfection to reduce environmental contamination. The tasks are inevitably undertaken by clinical staff (pharmacist), non-clinical staff (pharmacy assistants and dispensary technicians), or pharmacy management team. The availability of environmental sanitation and disinfection measures and practice of meticulous hand hygiene with readily available hand hygiene products would mitigate the risk of infection and provide some warranted reassurance of safety to both healthcare workers and patients. In addition, it is vital to evaluate the risk of occupational exposure to COVID-19 and provide staff with the necessary personal protective equipment such as masks, gloves, gowns, or goggles since physical distancing is often difficult to implement due to the relatively small spaces. This necessitates considerable caution, for instance, maintenance of safe physical distances between customers or staff, wearing of face masks by both customers and staff members, and frequent use of alcohol-based hand sanitizers in the community pharmacy compound. Improvement of public health requires effective leadership from the pharmacists who are central in providing rapid response, good coordination, and evidence-based approach that are well communicated between team members.3