About one in five people who have been infected with COVID-19 experience health problems long after the initial ‘recovery’. Long COVID, involves a variety of new, returning or ongoing symptoms that people experience more than four weeks after getting COVID-19. In some people, post-COVID-19 syndrome lasts months or years or causes disability. Many who were infected early in the pandemic still have problems three years later. It is not clear if the symptoms will ever go away.
The most commonly reported symptoms of post-COVID-19 syndrome include:
- Fatigue
- Symptoms that get worse after physical or mental effort
- Fever
- Lung (respiratory) symptoms, including difficulty breathing or shortness of breath and cough
Other possible symptoms include:
- Neurological symptoms or mental health conditions, including difficulty thinking or concentrating, headache, sleep problems, dizziness when you stand, pins-and-needles feeling, loss of smell or taste, and depression or anxiety
- Joint or muscle pain
- Heart symptoms or conditions, including chest pain and fast or pounding heartbeat
- Digestive symptoms, including diarrhea and stomach pain
- Blood clots and blood vessel (vascular) issues, including a blood clot that travels to the lungs from deep veins in the legs and blocks blood flow to the lungs (pulmonary embolism)
- Other symptoms, such as a rash and changes in the menstrual cycle
Keep in mind that it can be hard to tell if you are having symptoms due to COVID-19 or another cause, such as a preexisting medical condition.
A 26 year old British Olympic athlete rowing team was exercising 35 your a week post COVID. She experienced a mild case of the disease, so she felt able to make a quick return to training. The intense exercise may have exacerbated the virus, and she developed long COVID symptoms that forced her off the Olympic team. Getting out of bed became the burden she had to overcome each day. That became her exercise goal for the day. Intense fatigue only allows her to carry out a few hours of normal activity per day.
A high jumper for the United States was hoping to compete in the Tokyo Olympics. A bad case of Covid-19 derailed her chances and she failed to qualify.