A loss or changed sense of taste or smell are to be added to the NHS coronavirus symptoms list, weeks after experts first raised concerns that Covid-19 cases were 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, Chief Medical Officer Dr Michael McBride has said.
The four chief medical officers of Northern Ireland, Wales, Scotland and England have issued a joint statement on the matter.
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.
“From today, all individuals should self-isolate if they develop a new continuous cough or fever or anosmia," Dr McBride said.
“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 seven days, or longer if they still have symptoms other than cough or loss of sense of smell or taste.”
It comes as Northern Ireland eased some of its lockdown restrictions, including the opening of council recycling centres and garden centres. The first and deputy first ministers are expected to announce later today that the north can enter step one of its five-step strategy to exit lockdown.
Health Minister Robin Swann announced last night that all care home residents will be offered Covid-19 testing next month and a “rolling testing programme” is to be brought in for all staff.
Mr Swann, who has faced criticism for not bringing it in sooner, said testing right across the sector “is easier to demand than to deliver” and “it has always been my intention to over-deliver rather than to over-promise”.
Meanwhile, England’s deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam said adding a loss of taste or smell to NHS Covid-19 symptoms would mean 93% of cases where people have symptoms are now picked up, a rise from 91% previously.
It comes after a major study, published last week by Professor Tim Spector at King’s College London, found that people with a positive test result were three times more likely to report loss of smell and taste as a symptom than those who went on to test negative.
He heavily criticised the British government’s stance today, saying infected people had been encouraged back to work due to a failure to track symptoms properly.
Prof Spector, head of the department of genetic epidemiology and leader of the Covid symptom study app at King’s, said 50,000 to 70,000 people in the UK with Covid-19 were currently not being told to self-isolate even though they had the virus.
He blamed Public Health England (PHE) and the wider strategy, saying an insistence that only fever and cough were the major symptoms was missing thousands of cases.
Until now, the NHS 111 coronavirus symptom checker has listed high temperature and cough as the symptoms of Covid-19.
Prof Van-Tam said on April 3 that the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag) had looked at the issue and concluded loss of smell or taste should not be added to the symptom list.
But in the same month, ENT UK, the professional membership body representing ear, nose and throat surgery in the UK, published guidance to patients saying it believed loss of smell and loss of taste were symptoms of coronavirus and that it had shared these details with PHE.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) listed loss of smell and taste as “less common symptoms” several weeks ago and other countries, including the US, added the symptom.
Today, Prof Van-Tam said people should now watch out for a “loss of or change in your normal” sense of smell or taste.
He said it had been known for a while that people were reporting loss of smell and taste as symptoms but advisers had need to look at in detail.
He said the science around it had been difficult, adding that there had been variables around how common the symptom is and Nervtag “have been keeping a close eye on this for quite some time”.
He said there were some cases where the symptom appeared early on “but in many cases, it does not appear early”.
He said it was unclear whether or not loss of sense of taste and smell was acquired prior to other Covid-19 symptoms.
