Table 6.

SARS-CoV-2-related factors.

Theme	Quotes
SARS-CoV-2	“We have to be very careful of COVID (SARS-CoV-19), so the people are standing outside by the gates. Even if you phone ahead and say you are coming in, you have to stand outside…” (Patient 1 carer).
	“I didn’t attend the (NTSS hospital DR) treatment appointment because of COVID… I was just worried because I am a chronic patient, and now the COVID is so terrible and it will affect me” (Patient 2).
	“…I’m not afraid of COVID” (Patient 8).
	“…due to the pandemic we’ve had to suspend our services completely because the clinics needed to reduce the number of patients visiting the clinic. So, we have not been running our services, or our patients have not been getting retinal screenings or eye screenings for the past, how many months…” (Key informant 1).
	“No, at the moment the public hospitals are only dealing with eh, emergencies when it comes to eyecare, so unless you are losing vision with an accident, they do not see routine cases…So there is no way to get help at the moment” (Key informant 2).
	“I was supposed to go to (the NTSS) hospital recently, for my eyes, because they would have done laser. But then the appointments got cancelled due to the COVID story […] I know they cancelled all the (NTSS hospital ophthalmology) appointments when the COVID-19 came around... And I can understand that they are worried about the high-risk people, but I am worried about my eyes […] To get an appointment at the eye specialist there is difficult because there is such a long waiting list. And when I eventually got an appointment there, it was like a breakthrough, and then the COVID-story happened and I’m just wondering if I’ll get another chance” (Patient 4).