Coronavirus disease 19 is a respiratory illness that can spread from person to person. The disease was first found in Wuhan，Hubei Province. Due to its high infectivity，this epidemic seriously threaten the global public health. WHO designated this contagion as an international public health emergency on January 30，2020，and officially renamed the disease as coronavirus disease 2019（COVID-19），on February 11，2020. The International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses（ICTV）named the virus as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2（SARS-CoV-2）. This disease has been included in class B infectious diseases and managed as class A infectious diseases by the government of People’s Republic of China. In order to provide ophthalmic medical workers with the understanding of the disease，this article would focus on the characteristics，epidemiology，transmission of SARS-CoV-2. The relationship between other common respiratory viruses and eye infection，and the protection method for ophthalmic medical workers during the outbreak response were also discussed.