To review the policy documents related to COVID-19 issued by China's health administrative departments to make a systematic summary of the responsibilities and duties that should be undertaken by primary care institutions, offering guidance for COVID-19 containment in various regions of China.

In August 2021, we searched the official websites of the National Health Commission of the People's Republic of China (PRC) and its subordinate institutions for policy documents related to COVID-19 using "primary careinstitutions" "prevention and control at the community level" "COVID-19" and "COVID-19 prevention and control" as the main search terms. The policy documents containing "COVID-19 prevention and control" and "primary careinstitutions" were sorted out in chronological order of publication, and their contents were intensively reviewed, organized, summarized and analyzed.

Thirty-four policy documents extracted from the official websites of the National Health Commission of the PRC and its three subordinate institutions (Department of Primary Health, the former Bureau of Medical Administration and the former Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control) were finally enrolled. They were mainly formulated by the Joint Prevention and Control Mechanism of the State Council in Response to the COVID-19, General Office and Department of Primary Health of the National Health Commission of the PRC. According to these policy documents, the major responsibilities of primary care institutions in containing COVID-19 include: early detection and reporting the suspected COVID-19 cases; receiving trainings regarding knowledge related to COVID-19 containment and emergency preparedness drills for coping with the pandemic; strengthening nosocomial COVID-19 infection containment and personal protection against the pandemic; cooperating with the community in fighting the COVID-19 pandemic; implementing health education about COVID-19 containmentusing a scientific approach; health management of priority populations; collecting and submitting nucleic acid samples; COVID vaccination.

Primary care institutions play a vital role in containing COVID-19 in China. The local governments should follow policy guidelines, and take measures according to the local conditions to facilitate the primary care in stitutions to better their performance in response to COVID-19 as frontline responders.