PRESS RELEASE
Thursday, April 9, 2020
New BCLA webinar to examine what coronavirus lockdown means for your practice

The impact of the coronavirus crisis on eye care professionals will be the subject of the next BCLA webinar, with the session shining a light on what the COVID-19 outbreak means for contact lens practitioners.
Dr Shehzad Naroo, Editor of the BCLA’s journal Contact Lens and Anterior Eye (CLAE), will be joined by co-presenter Dr Fabrizio Zeri for the webinar at 6.30pm on Tuesday, 19 May, titled ‘Contact lens practice in the time of COVID-19’. 

The webinar will explain more about how COVID-19 can be transmitted, what precautions practitioners should take throughout the outbreak, what types of contact lens appointments should be considered an emergency and what advice practitioners should give to contact lens patients concerned about the impact of coronavirus.
Dr Naroo said: “The year 2020 will be remembered as the year the world was held to ransom by the coronavirus and the severe acute respiratory syndrome that it causes, known as COVID-19. 

“Many parts of the world have gone into lockdown to prevent the transmission of this disease, which for some could be fatal. Most contact lens practitioners have offered an emergency-only service during this time – but what does that actually mean? Furthermore, what precautions should practitioners take and what advice should they give their patients?
"This outbreak is evolving rapidly, the impact to the public health risks to be massive with huge economic and social disruption. As contact lens practitioners we have the responsibility to minimise the transmission of COVID-19 in practice based on current scientific evidences." 

The webinar is the latest resource made available to BCLA members since the start of the outbreak, following on from newly-published guidelines for both professionals and patients.

Dr Zeri added: “We have tried to gather the currently available, reliable, information to give an informed opinion on safe contact lens practice. We want to provide our colleagues with the best evidence about how to continue to work but minimising the risk for both the eye care practitioner and patient." 

The online session will be held between 6.30pm and 7.30pm on Tuesday, 19 May. Find out more and register here.

Notes to editors
• For further information, or to arrange further interviews, please call Daniel Owens from Orange Juice Communications on 07909 916668 or email [email protected]