Background: Coronaviruses are enveloped, positive, single-stranded large ribonucleic acid (RNA) viruses that infect various animals including humans which were first investigated by Tyrell and Bynoe in 1966. In Ethiopia, more than 26 million students were affected by school closures due to coronavirus surge. Objectives: The survey was aimed at assessing the prevalence and severity of depression, anxiety, and stress during the pandemic of COVID-19 among college students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2020. Methods: An online cross-sectional survey was conducted among 153 college students in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, from April 27-May 07, 2020. A short version of Depression, Anxiety, and Stress (DAS 21) scale were used, to measure both the magnitude as well as their severity. Findings: The overall prevalence of depression was 51% (95%CI: 42.8-59.1%), of which 49%, 18.1%, 20.9%, 7.2%, and 4.6% of participants had normal, mild, moderate, severe and extremely severe depression consecutively. The overall prevalence of anxiety was 51.6% (95%CI: 43.4-59.8%), where 11%, 20.9%, 6.5%, and 13.1% of the participants had mild, moderate, severe, and extremely severe anxiety symptoms respectively. The magnitude of stress was 11.1% (95%CI: 6.6-17.2%) of which only 7.8% and 2.6% had mild and moderate stress symptoms. The odds of developing anxiety among the students with a family income of 2001-4999 birr and greater than 10,000 birr had 69.7% (AOR: 0.303; 95%CI: 0.102-0.901) and 79.5% (AOR: 0.205, 95%CI: 0.064-0.653) higher odds as those with a monthly income of less than 2000 birr. Conclusion: A higher prevalence of depression and anxiety was observed from the current study, whilst the level of stress is still higher. A higher monthly income was associated with the development of anxiety during the pandemic of COVID-19. Concerned bodies were recommended to work over the identified problems, besides; large scale study mainly focused on determinants of depression, anxiety, and stress was also emphasized.
