Losing your sense of smell or taste IS a symptom of coronavirus, UK officials finally admit as they urge Brits to self-isolate if it happens to them
- The three official symptoms are now fever, new cough, or lost sense of smell
- If you get one of these you should self-isolate at home for at least seven days
- Chief medical officers hope adding it to the list will increase numbers diagnosed
- Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he developed the symptom when he was ill
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
People should self-isolate if they lose their sense of taste or smell because it is a definite symptom of coronavirus, the government has announced today.
Anosmia, the clinical name for a change in smell or taste sense, has become the third symptom of the coronavirus that will be officially recognised by the NHS.
Until now, people were only advised that they might have the virus if they had a fever or a new continuous cough.
But scientists working for the government have now decided there is enough evidence to add anosmia to the list.
According to government guidance, the patient must self-isolate for at least seven days, and everyone in their household should do so for two weeks.
Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, the deputy chief medical officer for England, said officials hope adding the symptom to the list will help medics to detect two per cent more patients.
‘With a cough or fever, sensitivity was around 91 per cent,’ he said in a telephone briefing this morning. ‘By adding anosmia, in terms of case pick-up, we think that might go to 93 per cent.’
Specialist nose and throat doctors have been urging the government to add the symptom to its official symptoms list since March, saying medics around the world had seen a huge rise in the bizarre effect.
It is not yet clear how many people who catch COVID-19 do lose their sense of smell, and Professor Van-Tam said estimates range from the ‘teens’ to more than 50 per cent.
Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted he had lost his sense of smell when he fell ill with the virus, but that it had returned soon after he recovered.
Until today, a new continuous cough had been the only officially recognised symptoms of the coronavirus. Now, anosmia – a lost or changed sense of smell or taste – will be added to the list
Professor Van-Tam said: ‘The reason for making the change now is that there has been a signal around the importance of anosmia as a symptom of COVID-19 for a while now.
‘It has been important to continue to look at that and be sure that we consider it and introduce it at the right time… this has been quite a difficult piece of science.’
He said that it was not certain in many cases that people were losing their sense of smell or taste directly because of the coronavirus.
Other viruses which affect the airways are known to have the same effect, including common colds and the flu.
Adding the symptom to the list too soon may have caused confusion or led people without the virus to believe that they had it, the deputy CMO added.
In most cases people’s senses do return to normal after their illness but it is possible that it can be permanent.
The UK’s four chief medical officers, led by Professor Chris Whitty, said in a statement today: ‘We have been closely monitoring the emerging data and evidence on COVID-19 and after thorough consideration, we are now confident enough to recommend this new measure.
‘The individual’s household should also self-isolate for 14 days as per the current guidelines and the individual should stay at home for seven days, or longer if they still have symptoms other than cough or loss of sense of smell or taste.’