Whether weather plays a part in the transmissibility of the novel Coronavirus Disease-19 (COVID-19) is still not established. We tested the hypothesis that meteorological factors (air temperature, relative humidity, air pressure, wind speed and rainfall) are independently associated with transmissibility of COVID-19 quantified using the basic reproduction rate (R 0 ). We used publicly available datasets on daily COVID-19 case counts (total n = 108,308), three-hourly meteorological data and community mobility data over a three-month period. Estimated R 0 varied between 1.15 and 1.28. Mean daily air temperature (inversely), wind speed (positively) and countrywide lockdown (inversely) were significantly associated with time dependent R 0 , but the contribution of countrywide lockdown to variability in R 0 was over three times stronger as compared to that of temperature and wind speed combined. Thus, abating temperatures and easing lockdown may concur with increased transmissibility of COVID-19 in India.

IntroductionSelf-medication is an important public health problem, with varied prevalence across the world. The high prevalence of self-medication in India is one of the important factors contributing to the development of antimicrobial resistance. Self-medication without medical guidance can lead to inappropriate, incorrect, or undue therapy, missed diagnosis, delays in appropriate treatment, pathogen resistance, and increased morbidity. The growing trend of self-medication can be attributed to various factors like the urge for selfcare, sympathy toward sick family members, inaccessible health services and nonavailability of drugs, time and financial constraints, ignorance, misbeliefs, extensive advertisement and availability of drugs in places other than drug shops. MethodologyThe present community-based descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted in an urban field practice area of a tertiary health care center (UHTC) in Central India. Individuals above 18 years of age and present at home at the time of the house-to-house survey comprised the study participants. A total of 400 participants were enrolled in the study. Data were collected using a predesigned and pretested questionnaire by the faceto-face interview technique. ResultsThe prevalence of self-medication in the area was 60 % (240). The most widely used drugs for selfmedication were analgesics (159; 66.25%) and antipyretics (142; 59.16%). Common ailments for which selfmedication was used frequently were fever, body aches, common cold, and cough. It was observed that female participants were twice more likely to self-medicate as compared to male participants (Odds Ratio (OR): 2.04; Prevalence (p) = 0.014, Confidence Interval (CI) 95% = 1.15-3.62). Additionally, those having education above the high school level had more chances of self-medicating than those educated less than high school (OR: 1.25; p≤0.014, CI 95%=1.05-1.50). The commonest reasons for resorting to selfmedication as per the findings of the present study are that it saves time and the condition was not serious enough to warrant a physician's consultation.

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