Research has found that people who routinely wear spectacles for more than eight hours a day are at a lower risk of Covid-19 infection.
Authors of the study, which was published in JAMA Ophthalmology, hypothesised that this reduced risk was because eyewear acted as a barrier to people touching their eyes.
It focused on a group of 276 patients in Hubei Province, China at the beginning of the pandemic who were admitted to hospital with Covid-19.
The proportion of the patients who reported routinely wearing eyewear for more than eight hours per day was lower than in the general population.
However, authors said although it would be tempting to conclude that the public could wear eyewear to protect themselves from Covid-19, inferring a causal relationship should be avoided.