So does the virus affect eyesight?

EXPERTS were divided yesterday on whether coronavirus causes eyesight problems.

The Royal College of Opthalmologists and Moorfields Eye Hospital spoke out after Dominic Cummings said he drove 60 miles to test his sight.

He was backed by Boris Johnson who suggested he too had suffered problems with his vision after contracting the virus.

But a spokesman for Moorfields Eye Hospital said: ‘At present, there is very little evidence to suggest that Covid-19 can affect eyesight. Cases where Covid-19 is recorded alongside an impact on eyesight are rare, so we cannot establish a direct causal effect.’

The Royal College of Ophthalmologists also said it was unable to report on the link at present ‘due to a lack of evidence’.

But Robert MacLaren, professor of ophthalmology at the University of Oxford, said coronavirus can affect the eyes in several ways.

‘It was reported in approximately one third of patients in Wuhan in a recent study,’ he said.

‘Symptoms (such as conjunctivitis) may affect vision and affected patients would be advised to drive with caution or not at all.’