Immediate impact of COVID-19 on mental health and its associated factors among healthcare workers: A global perspective across 31 countries

The emerging infectious disease, novel coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak began in December 2019 and spread worldwide 1. A total of 213 countries, areas, or territories were affected in April 2020 2. Coronaviruses are known to cause respiratory tract infection among humans, similar to the previous outbreak of Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERS-CoV) 3 and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) 4. Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) was unknown to be an infectious agent for humans before the outbreak in December 2019. The patients may mainly be present with fever, dry cough, and respiratory problems, while 80% of the infected cases are mild or asymptomatic 5.