Most other studies have examined COVID‐19 patients who have not been reported to have ocular signs or symptoms. One study collected 64 tear samples using a Schirmer strip from 17 confirmed COVID‐19 patients and analysed the tears using PCR to detect viral RNA. 58  The samples were collected during three weeks of the infection in the patients. While viral RNA could be detected in all nasopharyngeal swabs, no virus was grown from the tear samples and no viral RNA could be detected, even from those patients with symptoms of upper respiratory tract infection. 58  The authors concluded ‘the hypothesis of the lacrimal duct as a viral conduit may not be true’. A patient who presented with conjunctivitis that was later diagnosed with COVID‐19 had viral RNA detected in two subsequent conjunctival swabs. 58