New variants-are the symptoms really that different?

[Lemons1571]

I woke up Boxing Day with a headache, dizziness, head felt “full”, face feeling hot (but no fever). 12 days in, had a mild but odd feeling in left side of chest, can’t describe it, kind of tight as if it was being stretched. Never thought to get a covid test as the symptoms were so different to the big 3. I still don’t think it sounds anything like covid, but wish I’d got tested now!

They say that the symptoms and severity are unchanged.

It's more transmissible, and viral loads appear to be higher (which might mean some increase in severity in some people)

But which variant you have would only be discoverable by lab testing