a b s t r a c tTracheostomy post-tracheostomy care are regarded as at high risk for contamination of health care professionals with the new coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2). Considering the rapid spread of the infection, all patients in France must be considered as potentially infected by the virus. Nevertheless, patients without clinical or radiological (CT scan) markers of COVID-19, and with negative nasopharyngeal sample within 24 h of surgery, are at low risk of being infected. Instructions for personal protection include specific wound dressings and decontamination of all material used. The operating room should be ventilated after each tracheostomy and the pressure of the room should be neutral or negative. Percutaneous tracheostomy is to be preferred over surgical cervicotomy in order to reduce aerosolization and to avoid moving patients from the intensive care unit to the operating room. Ventilation must be optimized during the procedure, to limit patient oxygen desaturation. Drug assisted neuromuscular blockage is advised to reduce coughing during tracheostomy tube insertion. An experienced team is mandatory to secure and accelerate the procedure as well as to reduce risk of contamination.

SARS-CoV-2 Anosmia Dysguageusia Loss of smell Positive predictive value Viral load s u m m a r y Objectives: To determine the frequency of SARS-CoV-2 positive samples in a subset of patients consulting for primarily isolated acute (< 7 days) loss of smell and to assess the diagnostic accuracy of olfactory/gustatory dysfunction for COVID-19 diagnosis in the overall population tested for COVID-19 in the same period. Methods: Prospective multicentric cohort study in four olfactory ENT units and a screening center for COVID-19. Results: i) Among a subset of 55 patients consulting for primarily recent loss of smell, we found that 51 (92.7%) had a COVID-19 positive test (median viral load of 28.8 cycle threshold). Loss of smell was mostly total (anosmia), rarely associated with nasal obstruction but associated with a taste disorder in * Corresponding author.