Half of COVID-19 patients suffer from symptoms months later, new national data shows

A new review by the Public Health Agency of Canada says more than half of COVID-19 patients might suffer from post-COVID syndrome for more than three months after testing positive.

The review looked at more than two dozen studies from around the world in which confirmed COVID-19 patients were asked to report the existence of at least one long-term symptom.

4:42 COVID-19 update

Initial findings suggest more than eight in 10 people had at least one long-term symptom four to 12 weeks after diagnosis, and more than half reported lingering symptoms after 12 weeks.

Fatigue, pain, shortness of breath and sleep disturbances were the most common issues, followed by anxiety, cough, and hair loss.

Chief public health officer Dr. Theresa Tam says in a statement that while most people will fully recover from COVID-19 within weeks, what is known as “long COVID” can affect people across all age groups now matter how sick they got at first.

The study notes some potential weaknesses in the data because of self-reporting of conditions, a bias in the selection of patients involved in the studies, and a lack of knowledge of what pre-existing conditions patients might have had before they got COVID-19.