UK adds loss of taste and smell to list of coronavirus symptoms

UK government has reportedly expanded the list of symptoms related to the novel coronavirus as health officials added the loss of taste and smell to the already existing cough and fever guidelines as the criteria to test for the disease and isolate. At least 59 per cent of those who tested positive for COVID-19 experienced loss of smell and taste, based on the research samples.  

UK’s chief medical officers said at the press conference that anosmia, the condition of loss of smell, has been included as a symptom to the official government guidance of COVID-19 tests. This comes after the government’s scientific advisory group, New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (NERVTAG), analyzed data of those that tested positive. England’s deputy chief medical officer, Jonathan Van-Tam, reportedly said the data, which was collected between March 24 and 29 have been under regular review but there were questions as to how significant the symptom was. 

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“There are multiple occasions when NERVTAG has concluded the data are very preliminary and not the basis for action. As soon as they felt they had a position, they put it to the chief medical officers’ group and action has been taken within a few days,” Van-Tam said.

Difficult "piece of science"

Other symptoms that the King’s College London suggested must be included as symptoms to the official list are tiredness (fatigue) and stomach pain or diarrhea, as per media reports. "There's no point telling people to be alert if they don't know the symptoms," said Professor Tim Spector, the lead researcher on the university’s symptoms app study. The study app used samples that contained the symptom information from over 1.5 million people in the UK, which included confirmed as well as the presumptive cases of the novel coronavirus. 

Defending the time it took to include the other symptoms, Prof Van-Tam said that while there had been “a signal” about the possible importance of the symptom for some time, establishing its use in detecting more cases had been “quite a difficult piece of science”. As many as half of the COVID-19 patients could suffer a loss of sense of smell or taste. 

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(Image and Inputs from AP)