Around 24% of patients in the city, who were infected with SARS-CoV-2, continued having symptoms long past the time they recovered from the initial phases of COVID-19, whereas 76% completely recovered from the infection.
Corporation Commissioner Gagandeep Singh Bedi said doctors had started offering tele-counselling services for helping such patients with “long-haul COVID-19”.
Rubeshkumar, consultant, Indian Council of Medical Research - National Institute of Epidemiology, said 48.2% of the respondents selected randomly for the rapid needs assessment for post COVID-19 symptoms were those who recovered after getting admitted to a hospital. Others were in home isolation.
Over 34% of the patients included in the assessment had one of the comorbidities.
Over 23% had diabetes, 19% hypertension, 3.2% heart disease, 0.8% kidney disorders and 1.1% asthma.
The symptoms included coughing, breathlessness, tiredness and sleeplessness. Weight loss (9%), hair loss (7%), fatigue/tiredness (7%) and sleeplessness (5%) were the other commonly reported symptoms.
Just 1.6% of the individuals reported persistent breathlessness, 0.8% reported joint pain, 0.7% loss of appetite and 0.5% reported loss of memory after the COVID-19 infection. Of the residents who reported symptoms post-recovery, 57% were men and 43% were women. Persistent symptoms were higher among the age group of 45-59 years (40%), followed by 30-44 years (24%).
Among those who remained asymptomatic during the active phase of the infection, 4% reported symptoms.
Post-COVID-19 symptoms were significantly higher among those hospitalised than those in home isolation, and also higher among those who required oxygen therapy, officials said.
Persistent symptoms beyond 12 weeks of COVID-19 have been reported from various zones.
