Even if you don't have long COVID, it can still take weeks to recover — much longer than the isolation period implies. Millions of Americans are finding that this still majorly disrupts their lives.
Nina Feldman, a reporter for member station WHYY in Philadelphia, had COVID-19 symptoms that persisted into what she calls"medium COVID."
at Penn Medicine in Philadelphia."This is still a very significant viral infection, and sometimes it's just a more gradual recovery process than people's previous viral illnesses.COVID-19 symptoms that last for weeks may come as a surprise to some, especially after recent messaging from health authorities.
But Cooper was sick for almost two weeks before testing negative. His symptoms lingered for a few weeks on top of that, putting him in"medium COVID" territory."I just felt like there were weights on my chest. I couldn't sleep properly. When I woke up, if I moved around too much, I would start coughing immediately," said Cooper, who had walking pneumonia as a kid and was worried it might be coming back.
But then there is that awkward gray area: people who have been feeling bad for six to eight weeks after their initial infection. Abramoff said when those people come into his clinic, which they often do, he generally sends them home and tells them to rest. They'll likely get better on their own if they take it easy.
But even a small percentage of infected people dealing with medium-range symptoms would mean millions of people: The U.S. has recorded nearly 80 million coronavirus infections to date. If about 9% of those individuals dealt with symptoms for roughly two months, that's 7 million people.