COVID-19 impacting mental health is "the norm" and affects the brain in a wide range of ways including fatigue and depression - especially in mild cases, according to new research.

Evidence from 215 studies also found that loss of smell, known as anosmia, was reported by 43% of patients with the disease, followed by weakness (40%), fatigue (38%), loss of taste (37%), muscle pain (25%), depression (23%), headache (21%) and anxiety (16%).

The studies from 30 countries involved a total of 105,638 people with acute symptoms of coronavirus, including data up to July 2020.

Lead author Dr Jonathan Rogers, of UCL Psychiatry and South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust, said: "We had expected that neurological and psychiatric symptoms would be more common in severe COVID-19 cases, but instead we found that some symptoms appeared to be more common in mild cases.

"It appears that COVID-19 affecting mental health and the brain is the norm, rather than the exception."

Meanwhile, a separate new study showed that prior infection of COVID-19 reduces the risk of catching it again for up to 10 months.

Researchers looked at rates of COVID infections between October and February among more than 2,000 care home residents and staff.