Almost half of the people who were infected with the corona virus last year still had complaints three months later. Fatigue, in particular, often lasts for a long time. A quarter later, 31 percent of the 14,572 participants in the so-called LongCOVID study by the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM) were still bothered by this.
Of the respondents, 16 percent reported shortness of breath as a long-term complaint, 15 percent still suffered from concentration problems after three months and 13 percent reported “problems in a busy environment”. Such complaints also occur due to other causes, but twice as often among people who had Covid-19, according to RIVM. Persistent complaints after a corona infection are also one and a half times more common than after another respiratory infection.
Whether people were vaccinated against the virus or not made a difference only in terms of smell and taste among participants under the age of 65. Other persistent complaints, such as fatigue and concentration problems, were just as common among vaccinated as among unvaccinated people who contracted the virus.
These are interim research results. Questionnaires were completed between May and December 2021 and mainly related to the alpha and delta variant of the virus that circulated during this period. The extent to which people suffer from long-term complaints after an infection with the omikron variant will only become clear when the next set of results is published.