Covid: Loss of smell and taste may last FIVE MONTHS after infection - Daily Mail

Recovered Covid patients who lost their sense of smell and taste after getting infected with the coronavirus may not see their senses return for up to five months.

Anosmia, the loss or alteration of smell and taste, is formally recognised as a symptom of coronavirus infection. .

Recovered Covid patients who lost their sense of smell and taste after getting infected with the coronavirus may not see their senses return for up to five months.

Anosmia, the loss or alteration of smell and taste, is formally recognised as a symptom of coronavirus infection (stock).

'While COVID-19 is a new disease, previous research shows that most people lose their sense of smell and taste in early stages of the illness,' said study author Dr Johannes Frasnelli.

'We wanted to go further and look at how long that loss of smell and taste lingers, and how severe it is in people with COVID-19.' .

People graded their sense of smell and taste on a scale of 0 to 10, with zero being no sense at all and 10 meaning a strong sense. .

Of the 813 participants, 527 lost their sense of taste during the initial illness.

Thirty-eight per cent (200 people) of these had not regained their sense of taste five months later.

'Our results show that an impaired sense of smell and taste may persist in a number of people with COVID-19,' Dr Frasnelli said. 

Loss of smell and taste was officially recognised as a symptom of Covid on May 18, 2020, and since then has become an integral part of the diagnostic process as the NHS says the only three tell-tale signs of the illness are a fever, cough or loss of taste and smell

More than a third (38 per cent) of those who lost their senses had not fully regained their taste after five months (stock) 

But current Test and Trace rules mean swabs in the UK are only reserved for people with a fever, continuous cough or loss of smell or taste