Experts Say Wearing Contact Lenses Increase Spread of COVID-19 & Suggest Wearing Glasses During This Outbreak Period

It’s been a few months since the virus first cropped up on our radars.

At first, it was known to be a mysterious pneumonia that was wreaking havoc in China.

Now, there are multiple cases and clusters in Singapore, but we still don’t know everything about the coronavirus.

There’s new information that wearing contacts may increase the spread of the coronavirus:

Experts Say Wearing Contact Lenses Increase Spread of COVID-19 & Suggest Wearing Glasses During This Outbreak Period

Experts are suggesting that in order to prevent further spread of the virus contact lens wearers should switch them for glasses.

This is based on the belief that wearing glasses can prevent you from touching your face, according to the American Academy of Opthalmology.

Lest you’re unaware, touching your face is one of the ways in which any virus is spread and this is certainly not an exception for the novel coronavirus.

Contact Lens Users Touch Their Eyes & Face More Than People Who Don’t 

An ophthalmologist at MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland, Ohio said, “You touch your eye and then you touch another part of your body.”

“You rub your eyes, then rub your face, scratch your face, put your fingers in your mouth, put your fingers in your nose,” he added. “Some people are not very hygienic and may have forgotten to first wash their hands.”

It seems that beyond that, glasses also act a barrier to a small extent.

Steinemann explains that glasses can provide a tiny bit more protection from any coronavirus particles floating in the air.

However, there is a higher chance of you being infected through your mouth and nose than your eye.

This is more important for health professionals to take note of but it can also be a preventive measure for the rest of us.

For most of us “it’s just another preventative, another way in which you can add a filter to help yourself stay away from a coronavirus,” Steinemann said.

No Proof Right Now That Virus Can Be Transmitted Through The Eye

“Can you end up with Covid-19 from the virus entering through the eye? Theoretically, it’s possible, but we have no proof of that,” he added.

Another infectious disease expert named Dr William Schaffner who is a professor of preventative medicine and infectious disease at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Nashville said, “It’s possible, I guess, but I’ve always thought that that was a bit of a stretch.”

However, it is more likely that the coronavirus can cause conjunctivitis, a highly contagious condition also known as pink eye.

A small percentage of coronavirus patients have been linked to conjunctivitis.

Reports from China and around the world are showing that about 1% to 3% of people with Covid-19, also had conjunctivitis.

This is worrying because the coronavirus can be spread by touching fluid from an infected person’s eyes or from objects that person has touched which then carry the fluid.

Don’t panic though, because the best thing you can do for yourself is to maintain good personal hygiene and practice social distancing.