Identifying COVID-19 variant through symptoms profile: Would it be possible? A rapid review

Abstract The first outbreaks of coronavirus CoV, SARS-CoV and MERS-CoV have occurred in China and Saudi Arabia over the past decade, respectively. From the end of 2019, a great battle began by the world scientific community against SARS-CoV-2, the virus that caused COVID-19, a pathology that generated devastating consequences on all existing continents. Several mutations have already been detected in the structure of the virus, which have been responsible for the generation of many types of variants since the detection of the first COVID-19 virus identified in China. The worrisome mutations arising from the first genome of SARS-CoV-2 have been intensively studied. Some mutations increase the transmissibility of the disease through Spike, the protein responsible for binding the virus in the human cell. Among the numerous strains, the most discussed are called by the WHO as “variants of concern”. This study aims to review if COVID-19 severity may be variant dependent. Our study found tree publications that associate severity of COVI-19 symptoms to different SARS-CoV-2 variants. The most part of publications do not establish which variant is being expressed during studies. More studies with this focus are needed for a better understanding of the disease and respective variants.