Loss of smell and taste ‘now on symptom list’
A LOSS of taste or smell have been added to the NHS coronavirus symptoms list, weeks after experts first raised concerns that Covid-19 cases are being missed.
Anyone suffering loss of taste or smell, or a noticeable change, should now self-isolate for seven days to reduce the risk of spreading the infection, according to guidance from the UK’s chief medical officers.
If the symptomatic person lives with others, they should stay at home for seven days, while all other household members should stay home for 14 days even if they do not have symptoms.
The move means loss of smell or taste will now be listed alongside fever and cough as the main symptoms of Covid-19.
Until now, the NHS 111 coronavirus symptom checker has only listed high temperature and cough as symptoms that require further action.
England’s deputy chief medical officer Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said the move would mean 93% of cases where people have symptoms are now picked up, a rise from 91% previously.
It comes after a study led by Professor Tim Spector at King’s College London found that 59% of Covid-19 positive patients reported loss of smell and taste, compared with only 18% of those who tested negative for the disease.
These results were much stronger in predicting if somebody had coronavirus than if they reported fever.
Speaking on April 1, Prof Spector called for the rules to change, saying: “When combined with other symptoms, people with loss of smell and taste appear to be three times more likely to have contracted Covid-19 according to our data, and should therefore selfisolate for seven days.”
Yesterday, he heavily criticised the Government’s stance so far, saying infected people had been encouraged back to work due to a failure to track symptoms properly. He said 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 were currently not being told to self-isolate.
He blamed Public Health England (PHE) and the wider strategy, saying an insistence that only fever and cough were major symptoms had missed thousands of cases.
He added that there are even more symptoms – such as tiredness, stomach pain or diarrhoea – that could be possible coronavirus symptoms. He said: “There’s no point telling people to be alert if they don’t know the symptoms.”
ENT UK, the professional membership body representing ear, nose and throat surgery in the UK, said it first warned that loss of smell and taste were symptoms eight weeks ago and had shared those details with PHE.
The World Health Organisation listed loss of smell and taste as “less common symptoms” several weeks ago.