Volume 3(2) August 2020, Journal of Community Empowerment for Health 141 Respatika et al. COVID-19 eye infection Vol 3 (2) 2020, 141-146 | Review DOI: 10.22146/jcoemph.57095 1. Introducton Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) infecton have been reported worldwide, since the frst case was identfed in December 2019, in Wuhan, China. The novel coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has now spread over the countries and has become a global pandemic. The situaton reports – 14 from WHO was mentoned that, up untl 14 th June 2020, 7,690,708 cases were reported globally, where most cases (3,711,768) were situated in the Americas. 1 Coronavirus has an incubaton period of 2 to 14 days and usually has mild to moderate severity, with fever as its most common symptoms, followed by dry cough, and fatgue. 2, 3 COVID-19 can cause many complicatons, such as acute respiratory distress, shock, and arrhythmia. 3 In January 2020, an ophthalmologist in China was infected with coronavirus that transferred from an asymptomatc glaucoma patent. 3 It shows the possibility of potental transmission through droplets, aerosolized material, and tears. Some reports also have mentoned that the SARS-CoV-2 was detected in tears and conjunctval secreton. However, the transmission of COVID-19 through tears remains controversial. 4 Ophthalmologists may be infected either through droplets or direct contact with the patents. The other possible transmission was through aerosol contact. Thus health care workers should do proper infecton control measures to minimize exposure and cross-contaminaton. 3 The comprehensive facts about SARS-CoV-2 epidemiology and characteristcs are necessary for ophthalmologist to understand the outbreak. 5 By beter understanding of the transmission of SARS-CoV-2, hopefully, we could gain beter insights on facing this pandemic. 2. Method A thorough and in-depth exploraton through PubMed and Scopus databases for publicatons on COVID-19 manifestaton in ophthalmology from January 2020 to June 2020 was conducted by 2 authors (DR, ITM). COVID-19 eye infection: Recommendations for ophthalmologist and patients Datu Respatika, 1,2* Indra Tri Mahayana, 1,2 Dwi Puspita, 3 Guiddo Ilyasa, 3 Agus Supartoto 1,2 1 Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 2 Sardjito General Hospital, Yogyakarta, Indonesia 3 Ophthalmology Research Unit, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health, and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Indonesia SUBMITTED: 20 June 2020 REVISED: 30 July 2020 ACCEPTED: 30 July 2020 ABSTRACT Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) is a public health emergency of international concern as declared by the World Health Organization on 30 January 2020. Currently, COVID-19 is spreading rapidly worldwide, with no proven treatment nor vaccination, thus infection control measures are paramount. The severity of the majority of COVID-19 cases is mild to moderate, with fever as its most common symptoms, followed by dry cough and fatigue. COVID-19 initially reported to be transmitted from bats but then evolved into human-to-human via droplets. Coronavirus has been detected in tears and conjunctival secretions, but there is still a controversy about whether the virus can be transmitted through tears. However, the ocular transmission might be transported through a lacrimal duct to nasopharyngeal mucosa and then cause an infection. Because the nature of close contact in doctor-patient interaction during ophthalmologic practice, strict measures must be taken to minimize the impact both on the patients and health care workers. © The Journal 2020. This article is distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license. KEYWORDS Coronavirus COVID-19 Ocular Transmission Ophthalmologist *Correspondence: datu.respatika@ugm.ac.id Department of Ophthalmology, Faculty of Medicine, Public Health and Nursing, Universitas Gadjah Mada, Yogyakarta, Jl. Farmako, Sekip Utara, Yogyakarta 55281, Indonesia