The World Health Organisation (WHO) defines long Covid as “usually three months from the onset of Covid with symptoms that last for at least two months and cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.”
Research published in June 2021 by Imperial College London, based on half a million people in England, found two main categories of ongoing symptoms: a smaller group of people with respiratory symptoms, such as a cough or breathlessness, (this group was more likely to have had severe COVID-19 illness initially), and a larger group with a cluster of more general symptoms, particularly tiredness and fatigue.
In addition, those who reported their symptoms of long Covid on the Zoe COVID Symptom Study app, identified a third group of more severe sounding symptoms.
In the study of 4,182 people, heart symptoms were commonly reported, such as palpitations or increased heartbeat, as well as non-heart-related symptoms such as pins and needles, numbness and “brain fog”.
