The Covid 19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc as the world scrambles to find the yet elusive cure. With millions of infected cases and mortalities worldwide, it is mainly a droplet infection though other modalities have been documented. Concurrent to this pandemic infection, other diseases continue unabated and must be managed alongside the menace of COVID 19 infection. Surgical practices need to adapt to cater for the threat of infection during human interactions in the community, during stay in the hospital and between the surgeon and his patients. In the wake of the highly contagious epidemic, surgical patients should be triaged according to evidence-based guidelines. Patients need to be carefully selected for admission and screened for COVID19 and operating room protocols upgraded. Demographics, history and screening of the patient are mandatory before admission. Inpatient quarantine and curtailing hospital traffic are part of COVID infection control. Special operating room preparation, organization of teams and transport planning are essential in patients requiring operations. Telemedicine is emerging as an effective modality in patient management and infection control. The current situation could be a testing ground of its feasibility as a reliable practice for the future as well. It is hoped that positive changes in infection control improvised to curtail COVID 19 spread would become habitual so as to convert a parasitic relationship into a symbiotic one.
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