Background: Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread to over 150 countries worldwide. Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Saudi Arabia, cases have continued to escalate exponentially. The COVID-19 outbreak has had a negative effect on mental health and well-being. The study aimed to investigate the effects of the strict national regulations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic on mental health.Methods: This was a cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of Saudi residents. Saudi residents aged 18 years or older were invited to complete an online questionnaire after one month of a nationwide 24-h curfew between May 6, 2020 and May 13, 2020. We measured psychological distress using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). We ran binary logistic regression analyses to detect variables that significantly predicted DASS-21 scores.Results: A sample of 2252 participants was recruited from the general population of Saudi Arabia. The DASS-21 score means and standard deviations for depression and anxiety for the whole sample (10.73 ± 10.29 and 6.98 ± 8.30, respectively) were in the range of mild depression and anxiety. In contrast, the mean DASS-21 stress score was within the normal range (11.97 ± 10.80). The mean stress score for healthcare workers was within the normal range (13.70 ± 10.68) but was significantly higher than the mean score for the public (11.56 ± 10.89; P = 0.0006). Several variables (e.g., age, gender, and history of contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases) were significantly associated with higher DASS-21 scores.Conclusions: The COVID-19 pandemic has created a psychological burden. Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement emergency public health interventions that ameliorate the risk perception of COVID-19 through the dissemination of adequate and targeted health information that could be a successful measure to mitigate the psychological impact of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Background Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has spread to over 150 countries worldwide. Since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in Saudi Arabia, cases have continued to escalate exponentially. The COVID-19 outbreak has had a negative effect on mental health and well-being. The study aim was to investigate the effects of the strict national regulations associated with the COVID-19 pandemic on the population’s mental health. Methods This was a cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of Saudi residents. Participants completed an online questionnaire after 1 month of a nationwide 24-hour curfew. We measured psychological distress using the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21). We ran binary logistic regression analyses to detect variables that significantly predicted DASS-21 scores. Results The sample comprised 2252 Saudi residents. The DASS-21 score means and standard deviations for depression and anxiety for the whole sample (10.73 ± 10.29 and 6.98 ± 8.30, respectively) were in the range of mild depression and anxiety. In contrast, the mean DASS-21 stress score was within the normal range (11.97 ± 10.80). The mean stress score for healthcare workers was within normal range (13.70 ± 10.68), but was significantly higher than the mean score for the public (11.56 ± 10.89; P = .0006). Several variables (e.g. age, gender and history of contact with confirmed COVID-19 cases) were significantly associated with higher DASS-21 scores. Conclusions The COVID-19 pandemic has created a psychological burden. Therefore, there is an urgent need to implement emergency psychological interventions to reduce the negative psychosocial effects of the pandemic on public mental health.

Background: Vaccine hesitancy poses severe challenges in achieving population immunity. Achieving high COVID-19 vaccination acceptance rates to ensure medical students' coverage as future health care providers is necessary. This study aims to assess the knowledge and attitude towards the COVID-19 vaccine among medical and paramedical students to determine factors and barriers influencing vaccination decision making. Method: A cross sectional, survey based study was conducted among Al Rayan medical and paramedical students. Data were collected via an online questionnaire and analyzed by SPSS with descriptive statistics. Results: In total, 465 students completed the survey. Over all, students expressed good knowledge of vaccination safety.However, students expressed different opinions towards receiving the vaccine. 52.4% of students showed great uncertainty towards the vaccine, 20.9% refused to take it and only 26.7% expressed that they would take it with great confidence. However, 50.5% of students expressed doubts about the vaccine's efficacy and 52.7% thought the vaccination process was expedited. In addition, 50.6% of respondents think they do not need to be vaccinated because they are still young and healthy. Conclusion: Medical and paramedical students have different outlooks toward vaccination. Several factors contribute to their decision, such as the lack of confidence in data provided by the media and authorities regarding the safety and validation process. Therefore, there is a severe need to educate young adults regarding the importance of vaccination to minimize the negative consequences of COVID-19.

BackgroundSevere acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 . Presently, there is ongoing continuous research for more therapeutic options with a wide variety of vaccine availability. However, many people have worried about the vaccine's side effects. Hence, the current study was conducted to determine the prevalence of vaccinated individuals, side effects, and the rate of infectivity post vaccination including the three doses of vaccinations. MethodsA cross-sectional questionnaire-based survey was conducted using Google Forms (Google, Inc., Mountain View, CA). Five hundred forty-three individuals participated and reported their status of COVID-19 infection, vaccination, and side effects. All the participants from Saudi Arabia received all the vaccine shots including the booster dose. ResultsMost of the Saudi nationals were fully vaccinated, and most received Pfizer vaccines for their first and second shots. Pain at the injection site was reported as the most common adverse effect followed by fever, headache, fatigue, and joint pain. ConclusionFrom the findings, it is concluded that most of the population of Saudi Arabia was vaccinated effectively. Pain at the injection site is identified as the primary adverse effect of vaccination. Most of the population is vaccinated with the Pfizer vaccine. Long-term side effect monitoring is recommended with large population studies to confirm the status of vaccines and adverse effects.