Behind the headlines

29 January 2021
Winter 2021

Eye health issues that are making the news.

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Spectacles could cut COVID-19 infection risk

Researchers analysing data on COVID-19 patients in China noticed how few of them wore glasses.

Their observation was all the more apparent in a country in which at least one in three of the population has myopia. When the group investigated further, they found that only 16 (5.8%) of the 276 in-patients who tested positive for COVID-19 at one hospital in Hubei province, over several weeks in early 2020, wore glasses for more than eight hours per day. These 16 were also the only study participants with myopia.

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Related further reading

The College of Optometrists and the Optical Fees Negotiating Committee (OFNC) call on the government to make a long-term commitment to primary eye care in its NHS 10-Year Health Plan as part of the shift from hospital to community.

The College of Optometrists calls for vital community minor and urgent eye care services to be universally commissioned in England

Optometrists talk to patients about eye health every day, and have an important role to play in health promotion and public health.