Long COVID, also known as post-COVID conditions, is a condition where people who have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 can experience long-term effects from their infection. Long COVID is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after acute COVID-19 infection. The symptoms can affect almost any part of the body and can last weeks, months, or even years after infection. Some people with Long COVID can experience symptoms that go away and come back again. Long COVID is a new condition, and understanding is developing all the time.

The most common symptoms of Long COVID include extreme tiredness (fatigue), feeling short of breath, loss of smell, and muscle aches. However, there are many other symptoms that people can experience after a COVID-19 infection, including problems with memory and concentration ("brain fog"), chest pain or tightness, difficulty sleeping (insomnia), heart palpitations, dizziness, pins and needles, joint pain, depression and anxiety, tinnitus, earaches, feeling sick, diarrhea, stomach aches, loss of appetite, a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste, and rashes.

There is currently no cure for Long COVID, and doctors aim to treat the symptoms associated with the condition. Because Long COVID is a new condition, experts are still learning more about how long symptoms will last, and it varies from person to person. Some symptoms can improve quickly, while others last longer. The chances of having long-term symptoms do not seem to be linked to how ill a person was when they first got COVID-19, and people who had mild symptoms at first can still have long-term problems.

If someone has had symptoms of COVID-19 for four weeks or more and is worried, they should contact a GP. Recovering from Long COVID varies, and people can carry on their day-to-day life managing Long COVID symptoms themselves, while others may need to be referred to a Long COVID service.