A new normal with cataract surgery during COVID-19 pandemic.

Cataract is the second leading cause of preventable blindness on the globe. Several programs across the country have been running efficiently to increase the cataract surgical rates and decrease blindness due to cataract. The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to a complete halt of these programs and thus accumulating all the elective cataract procedures.

Effectiveness of using teachers to screen eyes of school-going children in Satna district of Madhya Pradesh, India.

Aim: To assess the effectiveness of teachers in a vision screening program for children in classes 5th to 12th attending school in two blocks of a district of north central India.

Materials And Methods: Ophthalmic assistants trained school teachers to measure visual acuity and to identify obvious ocular abnormalities in children. Children with visual acuity worse than 20/30 in any eye and/or any obvious ocular abnormality were referred to an ophthalmic assistant.