Symptoms of Brazil coronavirus variant to look out for – including fatigue

It appears that the latest mutation of the coronavirus shares the same three "classic" symptoms as the original strain, a high temperature, continuous cough and loss of sense of taste or smell.

The latest new strand of the virus was first spotted in Manaus in back in December, but has reportedly been in the UK for a number of weeks according to health officials.

Much like the original strain, a large portion of those infected with the Brazilian variant can be asymptomatic and unaware they are ill.

The British Heart Foundation explained: "Many people who get coronavirus don’t have any symptoms, regardless of which strain they have and there is no single symptom that means that you definitely do or don’t have the virus.

"So, if you have any concerns that you may have coronavirus, the safest thing to do is self-isolate and get a test.

"The new strains of coronavirus share the same key symptoms with the initial strain – including a high temperature, continuous cough, and loss of sense of taste or smell."

The British Heart Foundation conducted research into the similarities between the UK strain and new mutations of the virus, which found that 35% of people who tested positive for the UK variant had a cough, compared to 27% who tested positive for other strains.

Many of the other common symptoms outside of the main three reported for the UK strain are similar to other variants – including fatigue (32% of people with the UK variant), muscle aches (25%), a fever (21%) or a sore throat (21%).

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There are a number of things the level of symptom severity depends on, such as age and any underlying health conditions.

As it stands, there have been six cases of the Brazilian variant detected in the UK, three in England and three in northern Scotland.

Worryingly, one of the cases in England has not been located and could by anywhere in the country after the infected person failed to complete their registration card.

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The hunt is already underway to find them, with anyone who took a test on February 12 or 13 and has not received a result, or has an uncompleted test registration card, being asked to come forward immediately.

There are fears this person could cause a spread of the strain that could spread even quicker as well as potentially being evasive to vaccines.

Yvette Cooper, home affairs select committee chair, has called for stronger action from the government to ensure more mutations of the virus aren't allowed to enter the UK.

Speaking on the Today programme, she said: "We need to look at how these cases have arrived in the country in the first place in order to prevent others doing so.

"These cases seem to have arrived a month after the Brazil variant was first identified and we were raising with the Government the need for stronger action."

Mrs Cooper touched on how many people would have taken "indirect flights" from Brazil, highlighting a huge flaw in the quarantine system.

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The cases of the new strain that were discovered in Gloucestershire are thought to be from a traveller who came back to London from Brazil on February 10, before following COVID protocols and isolating in their home for 10 days.

From that household, there were four positive cases, two of which were confirmed with genetic sequencing to be the P.1 (Brazil) variant. The other two positive cases were still awaiting results of tests to determine if they also had been infected with the new variant.

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