With more coronavirus patients reporting the loss of smell and taste, medical experts have started paying closer attention to such cases, suspecting the symptoms may be indicators of infection.

Norio Sugaya, a doctor with expertise in infectious diseases at Keiyu Hospital in Yokohama, pointed out there are some cases in which patients suffer a reduced sense of smell when they are infected with coronaviruses or rhinovirus, both of which are known to cause the common cold.

“It is possible that the virus attaches to a mucous membrane in the nose and obstructs the function of the olfactory nerve,” Sugaya said, adding similar cases should be analyzed. Still, he warned, other factors may still be the cause of the symptoms.