Smells like a good idea for a Covid test

■ SMELL tests should be introduced in hospitals, airports and shopping centres to monitor the spread of coronavirus, a leading professor has suggested.

Tim Spector, professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College London, has suggested the tests, which detect whether or not an individual has lost their sense of smell, should be implemented in public places as part of a wider strategy to track coronavirus cases.

This month, the UK added “anosmia” — or loss of smell — to the official list of coronavirus symptoms.

The announcement followed a King’s College London study that involved 2.6m Britons, and revealed that changes in smell and taste were the most reliable indicators of Covid-19. The team discovered that 65pc of those who tested positive had reported a loss of smell or taste, compared with 57pc of participants who experienced a persistent cough.

Prof Spector, lead researcher in the study, argued that smell tests could prove to be a cheap and easy method to detect Covid-19 cases and protect the public.

He said: “It would be very cheap and easy to do and is probably more useful than measuring fever because the symptoms persist longer and if you have fever you don’t feel like going out anyway.

“At the entrance to a hospital clinic, for example, you could be asked to wash your hands, have your temperature taken, and you could have items to smell. The nurses checking you in could ask whether or not you could smell certain items, such as peppermint.”

With some schools set to reopen as soon as tomorrow, Prof Spector argued that the tests could be widely implemented across public spaces.

“It could work wherever there is some sort of control of people going in and out — it makes absolute sense.”