A LOSS of taste and smell are now official symptoms of coronavirus, England's deputy chief medical officer today announced.

It means anyone suffering from either will have to self-isolate for seven days and their family remain indoors for 14.

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Victims of anosmia will also be eligible for Covid testing.

Until now, only Brits with a new fever or persistent cough were allowed to get checks.

But scientists and leading experts have repeatedly criticised this narrow set of symptoms, warning it risks missing up to half of cases.

Prof Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer, today said: "Our basic case definition for some time has been a new continuous cough or fever.

"That will change to a new continuous cough, or fever, or anosmia."

He explained that while in clinical terms anosmia refers to a loss of or a change in normal sense of smell, patients may also experience a loss of taste as the two are closely linked neurologically.

SELF-ISOLATE

Those who experience a "new onset of anosmia" should self-isolate for seven days, however, symptoms could persist for weeks after they come on.

Prof-Van Tam said: “Anosmia can continue for days and weeks after you’ve recovered from Covid and that is not in itself – the same as cough – is not a reason to stay home longer than the 7 day isolation period for a suspected case.”

The change to the official symptom list comes after scientific advisers warned that as many as a quarter of coronavirus patients may be overlooked because they don't have a cough or a fever.

Members of the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) have been collecting data on the unusual sign since early in the UK's coronavirus outbreak.

Minutes from a meeting held on March 13 raised concerns that people with other symptoms – such as a loss of smell – may not self-isolate or get tested, according to The Times.

But the Government says that it's only now that they have enough to data to be able to add anosmia to the official symptom list.

Prof 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 for a while now.

"It’s been important to continue to look at that and be sure that we consider it and introduce it at the right time when we think it’s going to make a difference to how we pick up cases.

"But let's be clear, this has been quite a difficult piece of science because there's a distinction between whether anosmia can occur with Covid-19 versus whether it occurs early enough to be a useful help in detecting more cases."

He added that estimates on how common anosmia is so far have been variable and there still isn't enough data to suggest how many people have had it – or whether it affects one particular group of people more than another.

TRACKER APP

Professor Tim Spector from King’s College London runs the Covid Symptom Tracker app, used by over 3.6 million Brits to record their symptoms.

He said many infected people are suffering from more than just fever and a dry cough – with loss of smell, lack of appetite and severe fatigue all very common.

Speaking on the Today programme, he said up to 70,000 cases are currently being missed because the testing criteria are too strict.

However, Prof Van-Tam today suggested that by adding the symptom to the list, it will pick up just two per cent more cases.

Peter Openshaw, professor of experimental medicine at Imperial College London, told The Telegraph: “In the self-reported symptoms, as discovered by the apps, anosmia, the loss of sense of smell, comes out as a very, very frequent one.

"But in terms of how often that would actually lead to a diagnosis of Covid, that’s not quite clear.”

He added: “I think it is important that people do have a wider perception of how it may present. The original, very restrictive definition, I think was not picking up a lot of people who actually might have Covid.”

The change in symptom list applies to all four of the devolved nations, the Department of Health said.

A joint statement from the four UK Chief Medical Officers, today said: “From today, all individuals should self-isolate if they develop a new continuous cough or fever or anosmia.

“Anosmia is the loss or a change in your normal sense of smell. It can also affect your sense of taste as the two are closely linked.

“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 7 days, or longer if they still have symptoms other than cough or loss of sense of smell or taste.”

In March, the British Association of Otorhinolaryngology (ENT UK), which represents ear, nose and throat experts around the country, say they have seen a 'significant' number of patients suffering from these effects of Covid-19.

ENT UK said at the time that medics across the world had reported a rise in the numbers of people in the previous month saying they have anosmia.

In particular, they revealed at least two-thirds of Covid-19 patients in Germany had reported losing one or both senses, and it often happened to people with less obvious illness.

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