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The authors have done a commendable job outlining the consequences of delaying scheduled surgeries for gastrointestinal malignancies and need for prioritisation of procedures. The authors have analysed various published studies in literature to assess the impact of time to surgery and oncological outcomes in gastric, pancreatic, and colorectal malignancies. It is commendable that authors have clearly mentioned the limitations of the study that equivocal results in gastric and pancreatic malignancies may be due to patient selection rather than time to surgery. We would like to present a different perspective to what the authors have put forth. We fear it will be the delay in diagnosis of gastrointestinal cancers rather than time to surgery after diagnosis which will have a major impact. Being one of the countries most affected by the corona virus pandemic next only to the USA and Brazil, India faces a unique set of problems. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the diagnostic/ screening endoscopy, colonoscopy, and imaging services in India and the rest of the developing world. Even before the pandemic, the patients of gastrointestinal malignancies are diagnosed at advanced stage in the absence of screening programmes as the developing world lacks access to universal healthcare. The COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted the already frail health infrastructure particularly the diagnostic and screening services like endoscopy, colonoscopy, and

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