(Table 1)
Almost all the respondents (99.0%) were following one or the other Covid-19 guidelines for healthcare professionals although there was no unanimity among the participants about the source of those guidelines. When asked about whether the regular ORL out-patient department (OPD) should function during the Covid-19 pandemic, majority (69.2%) responded in negative while 30.8% were in favour. Significantly (p=0.005) higher percentage of doctors in private sector (42.9%) were in favour of running the OPD during the lockdown period as compared to those in government sector (16.7%) [Table 2] . While the reason for public health specialists being not in favour of practice may be that they receive a fixed salary whether practicing or not but on analysis why the private sector are not in favour of regular OPD during pandemic the reasons varied from having small clinic area (p=0.012) to unavailability of in house Covid-19 testing (p=0.004) and treatment facilities (p=0.001) [Table 3] . Greater number (75.0%) of respondents were of the opinion that triage clinic outside the OPD should be run even after the end of lock down.
While 61.1% respondents were using one or the other PPE, escalated cost of running OPD due to these measures caused worry to two third (66.7%) of the respondents even though in case of 69.9% of the participants, hospitals were bearing the cost of PPE. Significantly (p=0.001) higher number of private doctors (66.7%) feared about escalated cost of running OPD due to safety measures compared to government doctors (33.3%) [Table 2] . N95 masks (52.8%) followed by gloves (50.9%) and face shield (37.0%) were respectively the most frequently used PPE by the ORLs who participated in the survey.
On being queried about whether routine surgeries should be performed or not during the Covid-19 pandemic, majority said no (80.8%) while 8.7% said government should issue directions on the subject and the difference between the government and private sector doctors was not significant (p=0.765). High viral load in ENT region and fear of own or staff getting infection was the most important reason (67.6%) for not favouring routine surgeries during Covid-19 pandemic. A statistically significant fear of escalated cost of working during Covid-19 pandemic due to various safety measures was found in ORLs working in private sector as compared to those in government sector (p=0.001)[Table 2] . Majority of the doctors (71.3%) were performing emergency procedures during the pandemic, and most of them (57.4%) were using PPE during emergency procedures as a safeguard for preventing infection to themselves. .
As healthcare providers, 73.1% of the ORLs perceived increased stress during this pandemic. Significantly (p=0.017) higher proportion of Professors/Associate professors/Consultants (31.8%) and junior residents (30%) had high level of stress as compared to Associate/Assistant professors/Junior consultants (18.5%). The difference in stress levels among the government and the private sector doctors was not significant (p=0.765) [Table 4] .