Many people suffer from long-term consequences after infections with the corona virus. This is often referred to as “Long COVID” or “Post COVID”.
We used our DigiHero study to ask about infections and symptoms. We were particularly interested in the influence of the virus variants on the development of long-term symptoms. We were able to find that participants who were infected with omicron (as of January 2022) suffered less frequently from long-term symptoms. Only 14% reported still having symptoms 12 weeks after infection. In contrast, when infected with the wild type (March 2020 to January 2021), the figure was 52% (Table 1). The symptoms most commonly reported were fatigue, cognitive impairment and shortness of breath.
Our research results are currently being prepared for publication in a scientific journal. Further follow-up surveys are currently underway to investigate how long those affected will continue to have symptoms.
Table: Number of infected participants with Post COVID-19
