The World Health Organization announced on March 11, 2020 that COVID-19 could become a pandemic. COVID-19 is a contagious disease caused by the coronavirus that causes severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS-CoV-2). Viruses usually enter the body through the mouth or nose. The virus then enters the alveoli, which are small air sacs inside the lungs. Cough, fatigue, fever, shortness of breath or breathing difficulties, and loss of smell and taste are all symptoms of COVID-19. Anosmia, also known as smell blindness, is a condition in which the ability to detect one or more smells is lost. Olfaction uses chemoreceptors to create signals that are processed in the brain and form the sense of smell in anosmia. Anosmia is recognised as a COVID-19 symptom in many countries, and some have developed "smell tests" as potential screening tools. The first level of screening, which is currently used in India, is primarily based on temperature and can result in false positives and negatives (fever as a symptom has not yet been developed although infection). One of the methods for detecting COVID-19 is an intermediate level of screening based on assessing an olfactory function, depending on the usage. This paper provides an overview of COVID-19 and its effects on the human body, as well as an overview of anosmia and how it contributes to one of the symptoms of COVID-19.

Introduction: Visiting the hospital is important as a part of check-up in avoiding the major risks of unknown and serious diseases irrespective of any pandemic. Our study aims to understand the attitude and behaviour of common people towards visiting the hospital during COVID-19 pandemic in two major hotspot states of India namely Maharashtra and Karnataka. Methodology: A cross-sectional study was conducted between July-august 2021 among the population of two states. A total of 636 respondents completed the survey and returned electronically. Data were analysed using suitable statistical tools to achieve the objective of the study. Results: 74.8% of the respondents were not ready to visit the hospitals during the COVID-19 pandemic unless the symptoms were serious. On the other hand, 25.2% of the of respondents were willing to go to the hospitals. The top three reasons for the reduction in visits are fear of getting infected in the hospitals by COVID-19 patients (72.6%), fear of stepping out of home (31.1%) and fear of COVID-19 infection by the lab equipment (24.5%). Conclusion: Overall the study revealed that there was a reduction in number of visits to the hospitals for common diseases in people after the pandemic started. But the people were still willing to go to the hospitals if they noticed any major symptoms or symptoms related to COVID-19. Our findings may be useful to develop strategies to address concerns in order to ensure that people do not get any serious illness because of the fear of COVID-19.