Introduction
Anosmia, and hyposmia, the inability to perceive smells and a reduced or altered ability respectively, as well as taste perception alterations, are occasionally associated with respiratory virus infection, including the well known family of coronavirus1. Since mid-February 2020, SARS-CoV-2, a novel coronavirus initially identified in late 2019 in China,2 spread worldwide. As the infection was better characterized, main symptoms of fever, cough, tiredness and difficulty breathing were well characterized3. However several anecdotal case reports,4,5 case series,6-8  and surveys 9-13 suggested that a significant amount of patients with suspected Sars-CoV-2 infection also developed anosmia/hyposmia and/or taste alteration, and in a relevant amount of patients, these were the first symptoms of COVID-19. Most of these studies, however, base their results on presumptive or symptoms based COVID-19 diagnosis. Only one study to date has assessed a population of laboratory confirmed patients, performing quantitative smell assessment, but without investigating taste.14
Limited knowledge is available on prevalence, severity and recovery time of these disorders in SARS-CoV-2 patients.
The aim of this study was to investigate the prevalence and severity of smell and taste disorders in a population of laboratory confirmed SARS-CoV-2 patients. A secondary objective was to investigate the onset and recovery time from the same symptoms.