LAUSR

In December 2019, Wuhan city, the capital of the Hubei province inChina, became the center of a pneumonia outbreak of unknown cause. By Jan 7, 2020, Chinese scientists had isolated a novel coronavirus, also known as severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2; previously known as 2019-nCoV), from these patients with the virusinfected pneumonia.1,2 In2020, thecoronavirusdisease2019(COVID-19)pandemic broughtchanges that improved lifehabits and theway inwhich individuals took care of themselves. In addition, the understanding of the disease and its complications has significantly increased. However, there are still questions about the different multisystemic disorders it causes, especially concerning the possible sequelae in patients affected by the virus, such as olfactory, pulmonary, and hematological changes, and its clinical presentations and management. Practices that were until then scarcely performed in doctors’ offices began to be implemented, such as tests and preoperative procedures. New vaccines with promising results began to be administered in December 2020, despite the genetic mutations of the virus that had already been identified. In this edition, we highlight 4 COVID-19 articles reporting the impact of the disease on health professionals, the presence of symptoms that are less often explored and/or considered common in viral conditions, how patients with COVID-19 are treated, and,finally, the impact of percutaneous tracheostomy tominimize complications in themanagement of the patient’s airway. With the COVID-19 pandemic, the clinical practice of physicians who work in the head and neck field in Brazil dropped dramatically. The objective of the study by Imamura et al.was to evaluate the current impact of thepandemic inour field, to compare the current results with those at the beginningof the outbreak, and to identify difficulties in the resumption of elective care. They concluded that COVID-19 is still impacting the head and neck field and that safety concerns may impair the prompt resumption of elective care.3 The number of positive cases and deaths from COVID-19 is still increasing. Therefore, the early detection of the disease is very important.Olfactorydysfunctionhas been reportedas the main symptom in some of the patients. The objective of the studybyHariyantoet al.was toanalyze thepotentialusefulness of anosmia orhyposmia in the detectionofCOVID-19 infection. The authors concluded that the presence of anosmia or hyposmia is agoodpredictorofCOVID-19 infection. Patientswithan onset of anosmia or hyposmia should take the test or undergo screening for a possible COVID-19 infection.4 Telehealth consists of the application of technology to provide remote health services. This resource is considered to be safe and effective and has shown exponential interest in the contextof theCOVID-19pandemic. The aimof thestudyby Barreto et al. was to propose a teleconsultation and teletreatment protocol to manage patients with benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV) during the COVID-19 pandemic. SPECIAL ARTICLE COVID-19