LAUSR

Dear Editor, In the end of 2019, a novel disease appeared in the Chinese city of Wuhan named coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). The disease spread quickly around the world [1]. As a consequence, the Austrian Government ordered the first “lockdown”, which lasted from March 16th until May 15th 2020. Shops, restaurants, hotels and schools were closed and people were ordered to stay at home except for five reasons — acute danger, necessary professional activities, necessary purchases (groceries or medication), assisting other people and outdoor activities, alone or in the company of people living in the same household. At the department of ophthalmology of the Medical University of Graz, all appointments except for emergency cases were cancelled at the beginning of the first “lockdown”. Still, all patients presenting at the department without appointment were examined at all times. Thereby, we tried to adhere to the recommendation of ophthalmological societies [2, 3]. The outbreak of COVID-19 has provided researchers with the opportunity to investigate the impact of social distancing on other common infectious diseases. One of the most common infectious eye diseases is conjunctivitis. Approximately 2% of the general population has some form of acute conjunctivitis each year [4]. Here, we wanted to examine the effect of the “lockdown” on the numbers of conjunctivitis cases presenting at our department. We analyzed the numbers of cases by retrospective chart review. Ethical approval was waived by the local institutional review board. Acute conjunctivitis was defined as an inflammation of the conjunctiva with watery or purulent discharge. Allergic conjunctivitis was diagnosed in cases of bilateral conjunctivitis and typical concomitant symptoms like watery discharge, chemosis, itching or rhinitis. Incidence rate ratios were calculated using Poisson regression with SAS version 9.4 (Cary, NC, USA). p-values < 0.05 were considered statistically significant. The Medical University of Graz is a tertiary referral center responsible for roughly 1 million people. So the number of cases with acute conjunctivitis in this area should be around 20,000. Most of these patients are treated by general practitioners or general ophthalmologists. Usually about 1000 patients with acute conjunctivitis present at the department of ophthalmology of the Medical University of Graz each year. The numbers of cases of acute and allergic Key messages