Introduction Pregnancy is a beautiful phase in every woman's life in which she undergoes several physical and psychological transformations. The level of stress and anxiety may increase due to a sudden outbreak of contagious diseases. Objective To evaluate the psychological status of pregnant women during the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. Materials and methods A cross-sectional survey was conducted from July 15, 2020, to September 15, 2020, in Dehradun, Haridwar, and Nainital districts of Uttarakhand, India. A total of 333 pregnant women were surveyed through an online platform. The psychological impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic was measured using the Impact of Event-Revised (IES-R) scale, and anxiety levels were measured using the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 (GAD-7) scale. Data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Results The survey results revealed that around three-fourths (73.6%) of the pregnant women reported minimal psychological impact, with a mean IES-R score of 16.93±11.23, whereas 69.4% of respondents had a minimal level of anxiety, with a mean GAD-7 score of 3.09±3.73. Multivariate linear regression found a positive association between psychological impact and gestational age, occupation, religion, locality, conception, history of abortion (p<0.05). Also, the level of anxiety was significantly associated with education, occupation, monthly income, religion, marital and family support, history of mental illness (p<0.01), conception type, and awareness regarding COVID-19 (p<0.05). Conclusion Psychological impact and anxiety levels were found to be minimal in pregnant women residing in Uttarakhand. Early identification of high-risk women is important to formulate necessary strategic planning to reduce the complications associated with maternal psychological stress on developing fetus.

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Background Contact tracing is one of the strategies used to control COVID-19 pandemic. It played an important role in the beginning to identify all contacts and minimise the spread of the infection. Methods A retrospective chart review was carried out of contact tracing records during the one-month period, starting from the onset of the first lockdown in India. The largest wave of 372 contacts was analysed in detail to find out the association between the result of COVID-19 test and various factors (age, gender, type of contact). Results A total of 372 contacts (214 males and 158 females) were traced and around 21% contacts were tested positive on COVID-19 RT-PCR test. Chi-square test didn't find the significant difference between COVID-19 test result and proportions of male and female contacts, χ2 (1) 0.033, p = 0.855. Female positive contacts had lower mean age compared to male positive contacts, though not statistically significant, t (75) = - 1.809, p = 0.0745. No difference was found in either median or mean age of contacts with respect to COVID-19 test result. Odds of tested COVID-19 positive among household contacts much higher than community contacts, OR = 24.52, 95% CI 12.45–48.29, p < 0.05. Conclusion No difference was noted in the rate of contracting infection with respect to age and gender of contacts. Type of contact, household or community, significantly affected the probability of becoming infected with the coronavirus. Occupation of primary case was probably responsible for large number of contacts found positive for COVID-19.

As the world struggles to control coronavirus infection with the exhausting capacity of health care systems globally, the role of primary care physician and family physician becomes more important as the first point of contact with the community. Limited availability of mental health services in India requires general practitioners to deal with psychological disorders arising due to infection outbreak and its restrictive control strategies. This article discusses what and how primary physicians can manage the psychological burden of a pandemic, and therefore, reducing the reliance on mental health specialist.