Novel coronavirus disease pandemic and ophthalmologist's perspectives.

ABSTRACT

Ophthalmologists are among those healers facing a higher risk of acquiring novel coronavirus disease 2019, called COVID-19, during their professional duties since they have close physical contact with their patients. Some patients with COVID-19 may present with or may develop conjunctivitis during the course of the illness. The ocular secretions and tears have been identified to have positive results to COVID-19 tests and as such could be a source of spread. This review aims at providing the useful guidelines to ophthalmic professionals for their own safety, and safety of their patients based on the available current literature, and also based on personal experience and observations. Literature search was made on PubMed for COVID-19 in relation to ophthalmology in the limited period of the last quarter of 2019 and first quarter of 2020. Research also included access to current guidelines published by various ophthalmic societies. Accordingly, present and future ophthalmic practice patterns need to be modified.