<span style="color: #222222;">The country has witnessed a sharp decline in the number of eye donation and corneal transplantation due to the covid-19 pandemic in the country.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Talking to AIR News, Dr Namrata Sharma, Department of Ophthalmology, AIIMS, New Delhi said that the country has seen 63 per cent decline in eye donations and 52 per cent drop in corneal transplantation during the covid period in comparison to pre covid period.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Dr Sharma said that according to Eye Bank Association of India, before the covid period from April 2019 to March 2020, the country had registered  50 thousand 953 eye donations and  one year later from  April 2020 to March 2021, this number declined to 18 thousand 359.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">She further informed that in case of corneal transplantation,one year  before the Covid period, the number was 27 thousand 75 and after the pandemic, between April 2020 and March 2021, this number reduced to 12,998.</span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;"> </span><br />'' <span style="color: #222222;">Ms Sharma also appealed to the people to come forward for eye donations as backlog has also been increased due to pandemic.</span><br />