Nearly 1,500 Canadians lost their vision in 2020 because of delayed eye examinations and treatment. That’s according to a study from Fighting Blindness Canada.

The study found that the delay of optometrist appointments and eye procedures due to COVID-19 has had a significant impact on eye health in the country.

Almost 3,000,000 Canadians were not able to visit an optometrist last year because of the pandemic.

The President and CEO of Fighting Blindness Canada, Doug Earle, says this has had a significant impact on detecting eye disease.

He says with the delays, they are losing the early detection period for blinding eye diseases. He says normally, if detected early enough, they have treatments that can stabilize a person’s sight.

He says there are currently 143,000 Canadians waiting for eye surgery, with the backlog taking around two years to get through.