Examining all of the studies that have attempted to isolate live virus or analysed ocular samples for viral RNA demonstrates that, at any stage of disease, viral RNA was detected in only five per cent of ocular surface swabs (9/178); in other words, 95 per cent of samples did not yield viral RNA, and, where attempted, no sample grew virus. As is acknowledged by Xia et al., 76  PCR can yield false positive and false negative data: false positive data due to sample contamination and false negative data due to sample degradation. Given the low number of positive samples and the high number of negative samples, the present authors feel that the data demonstrate that it is very unlikely that SARS‐CoV‐2 is present at the ocular surface during coronavirus infection. Thus, the hypotheses that the virus could travel from the nasopharynx or through the conjunctival capillaries during infection are probably incorrect.