ABSTRACT:
This study analyzes the role of community health workers (agentes comunitárias de saúde – ACS) in sustaining public health systems during sanitary crises, using the COVID-19 pandemic as an analyzer of the relationships between territory, care, and public policies. Based on a qualitative approach within the field of Collective Health, the study examines how the territorial work of ACS functions as a living frontier between the State, health services, and everyday life. Data were generated through focus groups, interviews, and participant observation, allowing for an understanding of the everyday strategies mobilized by workers to ensure access to care in contexts marked by social inequalities. The findings indicate that territory should not be understood merely as a geographic space, but as a relational, political, and affective dimension of health care. ACS act as key mediators in the circulation of information, in confronting misinformation, and in adapting sanitary policies to local realities. It is argued that the sustainability of public health systems depends on recognizing territorial work as a structuring axis of Primary Health Care. In dialogue with the theme “Health without Borders,” the article proposes understanding borders not only in national terms, but as zones of contact where practices of care, inclusion, and social justice are produced.