Many nurses and other healthcare staff in the UK may already have been infected with Covid-19 but not diagnosed at the time, according to a new study.
Research led by the University of East Anglia in collaboration with University College London found a high proportion of staff experienced a loss of taste or smell earlier this year as the pandemic took off.
However, this was before loss of taste or smell – anosmia – was added to the official list of Covid-19 symptoms by Public Health England.
Questionnaires completed by more than 260 staff at Barts Health NHS Trust in April show nearly two thirds said they had experienced anosmia at some point from mid-February and mid-April.