Highlights d Cities possess a consistent ''core'' set of non-human microbes d Urban microbiomes echo important features of cities and city-life d Antimicrobial resistance genes are widespread in cities d Cities contain many novel bacterial and viral species

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COVID-19 patients have a higher risk of developing inflammatory responses associated with serious and even fatal respiratory diseases. The role of oxidative stress in exacerbating manifestations in COVID-19 pathogenesis is under-reported.This study aimed touseserum levels of superoxide dismutase (SOD3) and glutathione-S-transferase (GSTp1) by ELISA, zinc (ErbaChem5), ferritin and free iron (VitrosChemistry, Ortho Clinical Diagnosis, Raritan, NJ, USA) at the first encounter of randomly selected RT-PCR-positive COVID-19 patients, for assessing disease severity. The parameters which helped in identifying the severity, leading to poor prognosis, were neutrophil:lymphocyte higher than 4, high CRP, low SOD3 values and high GSTp1 values, and diabetes mellitus as a co-morbidity. Higher zinc levels correlated with high GSTp1 and low SOD3, indicating the protective effect of zinc on ROS. The increased high GSTp1 shows an anticipated protective biochemical response, to mitigate the low SOD3 values due to ROS consumption. Decreased SOD3 levels indicate a state of high oxidative stress at cellular levels, and an anticipated increase in GSTp1 levels points to the pathophysiological bases of increasing severity with age, sex, and co-morbidities, such asdiabetes. High levels of initial GSTp1 and zinc levels possibly offer protection to redox reactions at the cellular level in severe COVID-19 infection, preventing deterioration.