Want to check for COVID-19 infection? Look for these indicators
What's the story
As COVID-19 continues to sweep across countries, a large number of people are facing the challenge of determining when they might be infected, as one remains asymptomatic for 8-10 days.
The symptoms of the disease largely match those of common cold and pneumonia, but if a new study is anything to go by, there might also be other indicators - loss of taste, smell.
Symptoms
App to track COVID-19 symptoms, hotspots
In light of COVID-19 outbreaks, researchers from King's College London and Harvard Medical School in the United States released a symptom tracker app.
The goal of the app, the researchers say, was to source information from enough people and identify COVID-19 hotspots/communities where people who might be at high risk of contracting the disease - which is essential for slowing down the spread.
Analysis
Then, they analyzed the publicly-sourced data
Between March 24 and 29, the app had over 1.5 million users, of which some 26% reported one or more symptoms of COVID-19 and 1,702 went for a test - 579 being positive and the remaining negative.
Then, using all this data, the researchers created a mathematical model to identify the combination of symptoms that might best predict a COVID-19 infection.
Result
Loss of smell, taste came out as answer
The analysis revealed that 60% of the patients who were later tested positive for COVID-19 reported instances of losing their sense of smell and taste.
There were some negative cases who witnessed these symptoms, but that figure was just around 18%, the researchers said while noting that these two problems might be the key indicators of the disease.
Quote
People witnessing these and other symptoms should self-isolate
"When combined with other symptoms, people with loss of smell, taste appear to be three times more likely to have contracted COVID-19 according to our data, and should, therefore, self-isolate for seven days to reduce the spread of the disease," said study lead Tim Spector.
Problem
Promising results, but not peer-reviewed
The study carried out by the researchers is promising but has not been peer-reviewed or verified by other industry experts yet.
However, at least one expert, Oxford University's Trish Greenhalgh, has backed their results, noting that this is the first work that demonstrates loss of smell as a COVID-19 symptom on a large population sample.