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CLICK HERE for the online COVID-19 Screening
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Dear Patients,
Our office
is fully open for routine eye examinations, related medical visits and
all eye care needs including eyeglasses and contact lenses!
To help ensure the safety of you and our staff we have put in place additional safety protocols.
Listed below are some of them we want you to be aware of:
*Limiting the number of exams per hour
*Sanitizing of exam rooms before every patient and office throughout the day
*No-touch temperature checks of all staff and patients
*Socially distanced placed chairs in reception area
*Hand sanitizer locations along with accessible sinks/soap/water
*Air purifiers installed with UVC light killing capability
*Masks to be worn by all staff and patients
*No charge direct shipping of contact lenses to your home
*Sanitizing procedures instituted for eyewear frame selections
We wish everyone good health and hope this pandemic is short lived and we can gradually resume normal functioning in the near future.
We look forward to seeing all of you soon!
Appelman Eye Associates |
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WE WANT TO KEEP YOU SAFE...
All of us here sincerely hope that you, your family and friends are all
healthy during these stressful times.
Contact Lens Wear is Safe, however:
• Proper Hand Washing is Essential.
• Disinfect Contact Lenses.
• Discontinue Lens Wear Only if Sick.
Also remember to:
• Disinfect Your Eyeglasses.
• Eyeglasses are Not Proven to Offer Protection.
We are doing what we can to look after your health and your vision, and as always, we appreciate you being our patient.
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Symptoms
• Mild to severe respiratory illness with fever, cough, and difficulty breathing
• Symptoms may appear in as few as two days or as long as 14 days
Transmission
• Spreads person to person through small droplets from nose or mouth which are spread when a person with COVID-19 coughs or exhales.
• Can catch the virus by touching objects and surfaces that droplets have landed on and then touching their eyes, nose or mouth.
Steps to take to minimize risk
• Wash hand with soap & water for at least 20 seconds
• Avoid touching your eyes, nose, and mouth with unwashed hands.
• Avoid close contact with people that are sick.
• Stay home when you are sick.
• Cover your cough or sneeze with a tissue, then throw away the tissue in trash.
• Clean and disinfect frequently touched objects and surfaces.
• Ensure employees have ample facilities to wash their hands. |
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PROTECT YOURSELF AND YOUR FAMILY
Covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze with your elbow or a tissue will greatly reduce the number of germs that are able to spread to people and objects around you.
Even if your illness doesn't seem very bad to you, it could be much more serious for someone who catches your germs.
SOCIAL DISTANCING
What Is Social Distancing?
Social distancing is a way to keep people from interacting closely or frequently enough to spread an infectious disease.
Here in the office we're asking you to not sit next to each other to observe Social Distancing.
Everyone reacts differently to stressful situations, please be respectful of others boundaries. |
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Contact Lenses
can be worn safely during the COVID-19 pandemic. It is evident that
contact lens wear remains a highly effective form of vision correction
for millions of people worldwide and, for many, the only viable path to
functional vision. Certainly, it is understandable that individuals who
depend on their contact lens correction to function visually in their
everyday life are concerned about whether contact lenses should be worn
during this time. However, there is no scientific evidence at this time
indicating that wearing contact lenses increases the risk of contracting
COVID-19.
The virus is primarily transmitted by being in close
proximity to an affected individual who coughs or sneezes and inhaling
the resulting droplets. As such, the importance of social distancing
cannot be sufficiently emphasized.
The predominant ocular
finding, occurring in between 3 – 30% of infected individuals, is
conjunctivitis (i.e., “pink eyeâ€). However, studies have found that
there is very little evidence that COVID-19 is present in the tears,
which indicates that while touching the eyes can represent a possible
factor in transmission, but it is a fairly weak factor of transmission.
There are, however, several factors that are important in
minimizing the risk of COVID-19 transmission while wearing contact
lenses which have been recommended by numerous sources.
These
include the following:
1. The Importance of Proper Hand
Washing.
Touching the eyes can represent a factor involved
in COVID-19 transmission only if the hands were not washed thoroughly
prior to handling the lenses. Prior to the current pandemic, it has been
reported that poor hand hygiene is a risk factor in developing
sight-threatening conditions such as microbial keratitis (i.e., “corneal
ulcerâ€) and corneal inflammatory events in contact lens wearers.7
Therefore, eye care professionals have always emphasized that the hands
should be washed thoroughly with soap and water for, at minimum, 20
seconds, and dried with an unused paper towel.
2. Proper
Contact Lens Care
Individuals wearing daily disposable
lenses should discard their lenses after every use. Lenses that are worn
on a two-week, monthly, or longer replacement schedule should be cleaned
and disinfected as recommended by the prescribing eye care professional.
Likewise, for individuals not disposing of their lenses daily, care
solution bottles and storage cases should be discarded, at minimum,
every month and good case hygiene should be performed. This includes
emptying out old solution nightly, never topping off old solution with
fresh solution, as well as cleaning and wiping the case dry every day.
3. Discontinue Contact Lens Wear if Ill
As
is consistent with other types of illness, anyone who feels ill with
cold or flu-like symptoms should discontinue contact lens wear during
this time period. |
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