A simple query: “Did you recently experience a loss of smell and or/taste?” — is a highly effective screen in patients with influenza-like illness, a French study confirms.

“If the reply is ‘yes’, the probability of COVID-19 becomes several times higher than if it’s ‘no,'” says researcher Dr Pierre Tattevin of Pontchaillou University Hospital, in Rennes.

Patients diagnosed with COVID-19 commonly report loss of taste or smell or both, recent published work has shown. 

Based on these observations, the doctors from Rennes investigated the diagnostic value of these symptoms using a web-based questionnaire.