What is Long COVID?

Building our understanding of recovery

A man in a mask, a girl, and virus icons

Long COVID is real. When people have symptoms for weeks, months, or even years after COVID infection, it is called Long COVID. If you have long-term effects related to COVID, you're not alone.

The NIH is committed to finding answers. Our researchers are working to learn more about the long-term effects of COVID so we can help prevent and treat them.

As we learn more about the long-term effects of COVID, we'll update the information on this page.

Learn About Symptoms

Long-term effects of COVID may be different for everyone and they can affect many different parts of the body, such as the brain, heart, and lungs. And people who have Long COVID can have different kinds of symptoms. These symptoms may come and go, and they may last for a few weeks, a few months, or longer.

Some common symptoms include:

Coughing or feeling short of breath
Loss of smell or change in taste
Fever
Body aches, headaches, chest pain, or stomach pain

Brain fog (feeling like you can't think clearly)
Having trouble sleeping
Feeling very tired
Mood changes

200+more symptoms
and counting

To learn more about long-term effects from COVID, scroll down the page, check out our fact sheet about Long COVID (PDF, 627KB), or visit the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Long COVID webpage.

What We Know

Many people have symptoms long after they get COVID, which is caused by an illness called SARS-CoV-2.

Recovery from coronavirus infection can vary from person to person (see below) and symptoms may begin at different times:

Some people start feeling sick when they get COVID and continue to have symptoms for weeks or months.

Other people start having new symptoms weeks or months after their first symptoms of COVID go away.

Some people don’t have any symptoms at first but start having symptoms weeks or months later.

People use the term Long COVID to talk about all the long-term effects of COVID together.

Some people start feeling sick when they get COVID and continue to have symptoms for weeks or months.

Other people start having new symptoms weeks or months after their first symptoms of COVID go away.

Some people don’t have any symptoms at first but start having symptoms weeks or months later.

People use the term Long COVID to talk about all the long-term effects of COVID together.

You can have long-term effects even if you were never diagnosed with COVID. For different reasons, some people don’t get an official COVID diagnosis from a doctor. But even people who never knew they had COVID can have effects weeks or months later.

What We're Working to Learn

What We're Working to
Learn

RECOVER studies are being done to better understand PASC (post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2), which includes Long COVID. The research aims to:

Understand the causes of PASC and how they affect recovery from a COVID infection

Define how often Long COVID (PASC) occurs after COVID infection, and who is at the greatest risk of developing it

Study the types and causes of changes to organ function that occur with Long COVID and whether Long COVID increases the risk of other diseases over time

Identify possible treatments or ways to prevent the different types of Long Covid

How You Can Help

We’re looking for people across the country to participate in research studies on the long-term effects of COVID.

If you choose to participate in a RECOVER study, here’s what to expect:

Researchers will ask you questions about your health, review your medical history, and monitor your health throughout the study.
You will have check-ups with a doctor and take tests, like blood and urine (pee) tests.
For observational studies, you won’t receive any treatment for Long COVID as part of the study or be asked to take any medication or shots.
For clinical trial studies, you will receive treatment for Long COVID. That may mean you take medication or do some kind of therapy that is meant to help with Long COVID symptoms.
You will get compensation for participating in these studies.

Find and join a RECOVER study