Most reliable estimates to date suggest one in eight COVID-19 patients develop long COVID symptoms

One in eight adults (12.7%) infected with SARS-CoV-2 experience long-term symptoms due to COVID-19, suggests a large Dutch study published in The Lancet.

The main symptoms were chest pain, difficulty breathing, painful muscles, loss of taste and/or smell, tingling hands/feet, a lump in the throat, feeling hot and cold, heavy arms and/or legs, and general tiredness.

Three months after infection, the severity of these symptoms plateaued. Headache, itchy eyes, dizziness, back pain, and nausea did not worsen three to five months after COVID-19 diagnosis.

Of the study participants who had submitted pre-COVID symptom data, the researchers found 21.4% (381/1,782) of COVID-19-positive participants, compared to 8.7% (361/4,130) of the control group, experienced at least one increased core symptom at moderate severity 3 months or more after SARs-CoV-2 infection.

This implies that in 12.7% of COVID-19 patients, their new or severely increased symptoms three months post-COVID can be attributed to SARS-CoV-2 infection.