Discussion
cough
VIRUS, DISEASE, COVID-19 INFECTION
The results show the sensitivity of this technique in detecting droplets, and the number of droplets that a single cough can generate, with the potential of COVID-19 infection within an eye clinic. This has been suggested in other clinical environments [The breath-guard effectively reduced the spread of droplets from the cough model, this effect was enhanced using a face-mask. We found a 99.93% fall in the area of spots detected with a breath-guard and 99.98% reduction with the face-mask as well as the breath-guard. However, some drops still escaped and as only one droplet may be sufficient to transmit COVID-19 other measures to prevent droplet transmission are clearly still vital. These results are consistent with the droplet spread found in other healthcare environments. A physical barrier may be key to prevent droplet spread. This is clearly an important feature of safety within the ophthalmology clinic for slit lamp users but for other equipment as well (such as autorefractors and biometry).However, the breath-guards are not protective against the smallest droplets such as aerosols [One last consideration was that the fluorescein actively stained fluid that was detected on the floor, chair, swabs and on the instruments. This was of considerable surprise to the ophthalmologist. Use of fluorescein in this way may be a useful clinical test for fomite transfer [The limitations of this trial were that it was not possible to accurately measure the aerosol release and as these play a vital role in the propagation of disease [Given the relative size of the droplets the volume of virus carried in these is large and protection against droplets plays an important role within the eye clinic.