**2. Methodology**

#### **2.1 Research design**

To address the stated research questions and objectives, the study adopts a desk review of the literature. The desk review of literature includes scoping existing online records, scientific articles, and reports published in English on the pandemic, related comorbidities, and mental health between 2000 and 2021. All scientific articles were obtained from the online database, while country and continent-specific reports and preprint articles were abstracted using google scholar.
