1 in 8 People Who Have COVID-19 Experience Lingering Symptoms Weeks or Months Later
A new study found that 12.3% of people with COVID-19 suffer long-term post-COVID fatigue. This condition, known as long-COVID, is characterized by persistent symptoms after a person fights off the infection. Severe fatigue is one of many possible effects of long-COVID. Other common symptoms include cough, difficulty breathing, chest pain, heart palpitations, brain fog, headaches, sleep problems, and digestive problems. The study showed that 16% of COVID survivors experience three or more of these prolonged symptoms. The likelihood of having 3 or more symptoms declined over time (28.4% during original strain vs. 16.0% during omicron variant) at least in part due to higher vaccination rates. “There’s definitely been a decreased incidence of this complication over time, but there’s still a huge number of people who are suffering from prolonged symptom, said Dr. Michael Gotlieb, a lead researcher on the study. “So, this is both the good news and not so good news”.