Novel corona virus SARS-CoV-2, causing coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has become a global health challenge particularly for developing countries like Pakistan where overcrowded cities, inadequate sanitation, little health awareness and poor socioeconomic conditions exist. The SARS-CoV-2 has been known to spread primarily through direct contact and respiratory droplets. However, detection of SARS-CoV-2 in stool and sewage, have raised the possibility of fecal-oral mode of transmission. Currently, quantitative reverse-transcriptase PCR (qRT-PCR) is the only method being used for SARS-CoV-2 detection, which requires expensive instrumentation, dedicated laboratory setup, highly skilled staff, and several hours to report results. Considering the high transmissibility and rapid spread, a robust, sensitive, specific and cheaper assay for rapid SARS-CoV-2 detection is highly needed. Herein, we report a novel colorimetric RT-LAMP assay for naked-eye detection of SARS-COV-2 in clinical as well as sewage samples. Our SARS-CoV-2 RdRp-based LAMP assay could successfully detect the virus RNA in 26/28 (93%) of RT-PCR positive COVID-19 clinical samples with 100% specificity (n = 7) within 20 min. We also tested the effect of various additives on the performance of LAMP assay and found that addition of 1 mg/ml bovine serum albumin (BSA) could increase the sensitivity of assay up to 10 1 copies of target sequence. Moreover, we also successfully applied this assay to detect SARS-CoV-2 in sewage waters collected from those areas of Lahore, a city of Punjab province of Pakistan, declared as virus hotspots by local government. Our optimized LAMP assay could provide a sensitive first tier strategy for SARS-CoV-2 screening and can potentially help diagnostic laboratories in better handling of high sample turnout during pandemic situation. By providing rapid naked-eye SARS-CoV-2 detection in sewage samples, this assay may support pandemic readiness and emergency response to any possible virus outbreaks in future.

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Background: The biggest dilemma of today’s world is COVID-19. This pandemic situation has completely engulfed the globe with a rapidly increasing number of cases and has affected a great number of lives along with their lifestyle including the educational sector. Objective: This study explores the impact of COVID-19, how frequent lockdown, and online learning have affected the mental health of the students of medical college. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among the medical students of Karachi, in September 2021, in Jinnah Medical and Dental College. A total of 312 medical students were enrolled in the study. Out of which 208 were females and 104 were males. Depression Anxiety Stress Scale-21 (DASS-21) was used to assess the mental health of students of medical college. Results: The results of the study revealed that a total of 312 medical students were enrolled in the study; belonging to the age group of (18-25) years. Approximately 104 (66 %) of female students experienced depression, 44 (21%) anxiety, and 60 (28%) stress. Hence gender and year of study of the participants were found to be significant (p-value<0.05). The odds of first-year students showed high levels of anxiety as compared to final-year students (OR = 1.679, 95% CI [1.202–2.634], P = 0.002). Conclusion: This study will help in making relevant policies, mental health strategies and providing a better framework for the medical colleges and universities which is essential for the mental health of students. Keywords: Anxiety, COVID-19, Depression, Karachi, Medical Students, Stress

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