Evaluation of coronavirus in tears and conjunctival secretions of patients with SARS-CoV-2 infection

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the presence of novel coronavirus in tears and conjunctival secretions of SARS–CoV-2-infected patients. Methods: A prospective interventional case series study was performed, and 30 confirmed novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP) patients were selected at the First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang University from 26 January 2020 to 9 February 2020. At an interval of 2 to 3 days, tear and conjunctival secretions were collected twice with disposable sampling swabs for reverse-transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) assay. Results: Twenty-one common-type and nine severe-type NCP patients were enrolled. Two samples of tear and conjunctival secretions were obtained from the only one patient with conjunctivitis yielded positive RT-PCR results. Fifty-eight samples from other patents were all negative. Conclusion: We speculate that SARS-CoV-2 may be detected in the tears and conjunctival secretions in NCP patients with conjunctivitis.