Women Are More Vulnerable to Psychological Effects of COVID-19 Pandemic

The Coronavirus family are positive-sense, singlestrand, and linear RNA viruses with a wide range of manifestations from mild respiratory symptoms such as common cold to severe respiratory distress and death and certain gastrointestinal symptoms (1). Some important members of Coronavirus family, causing the pandemic, are Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS), Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS), and Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19). COVID-19 emerged in Wuhan, China, in December 2019 (2). It rapidly spread across the world, such that the World Health Organization (WHO) hailed it the pandemic of the century in March 11, 2020 (3). By July 4, 2020, about 10.5 million infected patients and around 500,000 deaths were reported worldwide (4). COVID-19 spreads either directly via respiratory droplets dispersed during talking, coughing, sneezing, or indirectly via the surfaces and objects contaminated by viral particles (5). Hence, social distancing, wearing masks, and using sanitizers are mentioned as the most effective methods for interrupting the cycle of COVID-19 transmission. Besides, most countries implemented lockdown in their communities for a while.