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Coughs, sore throats and fatigue are more common in people who test positive for the new variant of the coronavirus, but loss of taste or smell is less likely, according to a study.
The highly communicable variant of the coronavirus that emerged in the UK last year and spread across the world appears to make familiar symptoms of Covid more common.
A survey by the Office for National Statistics found that people reported more coughs, sore throats, fatigue and muscle pain when they were infected with the new variant than with older ones who fed the first wave.
The change in symptoms may be because the variant is more infectious and spreads faster in the body than older variants, although the full impact of many mutations in the new variant is unknown.
The ONS asked people about their symptoms after receiving a strong positive test for Covid between November 15 and January 16. The most transmissible variant, called B117, was first spotted in Kent in September and has since spread rapidly across the country and the world.
According to the survey, those infected with the new variant reported more symptoms across the board, although they were less likely to experience loss of taste and smell than with previous variants. Reports of coughing increased from around 27% to 35% of those infected, with fatigue, muscle pain and a sore throat also increasing markedly.
Scientists from the government’s New and Emerging Respiratory Virus Threat Advisory Group (Nervtag) concluded last week that the new variant may increase Covid’s death rate by 30% to 40%, although some experts have said it is. too early to assess whether it is more deadly. The reason for the increased lethality is unclear, but it may be related to a mutation called N501Y, which allows the virus to infect cells more easily, making it 50-70% more transmissible.
“Loss of taste and loss of smell were significantly less common in new compatible positive variants” than in older variants, according to the ONS survey, “while other symptoms were more common in new compatible positive variants” . There was no evidence of differences in gastrointestinal symptoms, shortness of breath, or headaches, the survey found.
Lawrence Young, professor of molecular oncology at the University of Warwick, said mutations in the UK variant of the virus could influence symptoms associated with the infection. “This variant is more transmissible and infected individuals appear to have higher virus loads, which means they produce more virus,” he said.
“This could result in a more widespread infection within the body, which may be responsible for more coughing, muscle pain and tiredness. The virus has 23 changes compared to the original Wuhan virus. Some of these changes in different parts of the virus could affect the body’s immune response and also influence the variety of symptoms associated with the infection.
But Ian Jones, a professor of virology at the University of Reading, was skeptical of the ONS finding. “The virus will infect the same cells with the same consequences,” he said. “It will be interesting to see if this is the result of the self-report or if there is some independent measure of correlation. Scientifically, I can’t see how it would work. “
