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		</div><p>Loss of taste and smell will “absolutely not” be added to the list of symptoms people should watch for when measuring their potential for having Covid-19, the British Government has confirmed.</p>
<p>The announcement comes after Britain&#8217;s Health Secretary Matt Hancock revealed he lost his sense of taste when he was struck down by coronavirus last week.</p>
<p>He made his first public appearance on Thursday after self-isolating for seven days following a positive test for the virus.</p>
<p>Speaking at a press conference in Downing Street today, Mr Hancock said: <em>“For me personally, I did lose my sense of taste but it has come back though.</em></p>
<p><em>“I can assure people who have lost their sense of taste that the good news is that, in my case, it wasn’t permanent.”</em></p>
<p>Researchers at King’s College London this week published evidence, based on UK data, which indicated that almost 60% of coronavirus patients experienced a loss of taste and smell.</p>
<p>But Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, deputy chief medical officer for England, said the advice from experts was that such developments should not be considered tell-tale symptoms to watch for.</p>
<p>The advice had been issued to the British Government by the New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threats Advisory Group (Nervtag), Prof. Van-Tam told the Number 10 press briefing.</p>
<p><em>“On the point about loss of taste and smell, we have actually asked our expert advisory committee, Nervtag, to look at this,”</em> he told reporters.</p>
<p><em>“And there is some anecdotal data in the published domain that there is a proportion of people who do indeed lose their sense of taste and smell.</em></p>
<p><em>“However, we have looked at the data there is, in relation to whether that on its own is a symptom that would be important to add to the case definition, and the answer to that from our experts is absolutely not.”</em></p>
<p>Prof. Van-Tam’s comments come after scientists at King’s College, who have been tracking symptoms via their specially-created app, said smell and taste were experienced by the majority of those diagnosed with Covid-19.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="550" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="en" dir="ltr">The UK has a COVID-19 symptom tracker app. Here&#39;s what it can tell us <a href="https://t.co/7B4LqARB0v">https://t.co/7B4LqARB0v</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/coronavirus?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#coronavirus</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/UK?src=hash&;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#UK</a> <a href="https://t.co/US4mn7RXN7">pic.twitter.com/US4mn7RXN7</a></p>
<p>&mdash; World Economic Forum (@wef) <a href="https://twitter.com/wef/status/1246127890749476865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 3, 2020</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<p>By March 31, the Covid Symptom Tracker App had more than 1.8 million users signed up to log their symptoms, or lack thereof, daily.</p>
<p>Some 59% of the 1.5 million people who had signed up by March 29 and tested positive reported a loss of smell and taste, compared with 18% of those who tested negative, analysis of the data showed.</p>
<p>The researchers said the reports of those symptoms were much stronger in predicting a positive Covid-19 diagnosis than self-reported fever – a symptom Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who remains ill in self-isolation following his initial seven day quarantine, is currently experiencing.</p>
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