15% of Canadians infected with COVID suffer from long-term symptoms: study

Statistics Canada reports that nearly 15 per cent of Canadians who had confirmed cases of COVID-19, or 1.4 million people so far, report long COVID symptoms at least three months after their initial infection.

Dr. Ron Damant, a professor at the Division of Pulmonary Medicine at the University of Alberta, is also a part of the long COVID clinic at the same university. He says people should watch out for these long COVID symptoms.

“There’s a lot of symptoms associated with long COVID. Fatigue is probably the most common. But shortness of breath, cough, wheeze, a loss of taste and smell, muscle aches, diarrhea, rash,” Damant said.

“Unfortunately, we are seeing a lot of people who have had a second or third and sometimes even a fourth COVID infection. And that’s generally not a good thing because, with every COVID infection, there’s a risk of developing more symptoms and prolonging existing symptoms.”

Long COVID is now officially labelled as “Post COVID-19 Condition” by the World Health Organization.

In Alberta, there are four specialized long COVID clinics, including two in Calgary at Peter Lougheed Centre and Rockyview General Hospital. There is also a dedicated website to guide those suffering from long covid symptoms.

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Damant says the road to recovery is different for every COVID patient.

“Many of our patients report a kind of a roller coaster ride where they feel like they are starting to get better and then all of a sudden the bottom drops out, and they have a setback, but overall it seems like for most people the trend is one of gradual improvement,” Damant said.

Medical experts say there are some people out there who still do not realize they have long COVID symptoms, while others are forced to either cut back their work hours or make a lifestyle change.

Damant says post-COVID complications should be timely treated.

“Plenty of rest, a little bit of exercise not overdoing the exercise, but not kind of being a couch potato,” he said. “Good nutrition, keeping your vaccinations up to date. Those are the important things and it’s such a variable disease. Some people take a long time to gradually get better, other people get better fairly quickly.”

-This story has been corrected for the percentage of people that were infected with COVID suffering from the long-term symptoms