CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — The ongoing coronavirus pandemic has changed the way how patients will visit the eye doctor for an exam.
Staff with the Texas Eye Care Network had to make major adjustments and implement social distancing restrictions. Before patients arrive at the eye clinic, they will have to complete a prescreening, temperature checks, along with having a face covering.
Dr. Richard Bond says staff had to also spread chairs out in the waiting areas and install several protective sneeze guards. Staff constantly disinfect their equipment which can play a crucial role in the ongoing pandemic.
“It seems to persist longer in the eye even than is does even in the lungs,” says Dr. Bond.
Dr. Bond says with their equipment and technology, eye doctors can detect irregular patterns that can trace to the coronavirus.
“In many cases, eye symptoms and eye infections, or red eye, blurred vision, pain, difficulty seeing in bright lights that can be one of the first presenting symptoms of COVID-19,” says Dr. Bond.
To fight the virus from entering your body, Dr. Bond says you must do your part in wearing your face mask. This will not just protect yourself but also others around you.
“Well again, people have probably heard this so much they can probably recite it and that is that you want to wash your hands often and you don’t want to touch your face because anything that is on your hands you can transfer to your face, or into your eye,” says Dr. Bond.