A recent study showed that one-third of recovered COVID-19 patients in the city of Long Beach, California was still experiencing symptoms, both lingering and/or new, two months after testing positive for the SARS-CoV-2 virus.

The study, published in the September 17, 2021 issue of the CDC’s Mortality and Morbidity Weekly Report, was conducted by a team of graduate epidemiology students at the University of California, Davis, in collaboration with the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services.

What They Did

While working at the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services during the summer of 2020, doctoral student Kyle Yomogida and colleagues noticed a substantial number of reports regarding patients with long-term unresolved symptoms. Yomogida, along with fellow students Sophie Zhu and Francesca Rubino, Long Beach Health Department staff members, and nursing students from California State University, Long Beach, conducted phone interviews with a random sampling of Long Beach residents over the age of 18 who had positive COVID-19 tests between April 1 and December 10, 2020.

What They Found

The team discovered that 35% of respondents experienced at least one symptom two months following their positive tests. Symptoms included:

• Fatigue  
• Loss of taste or smell 
• Muscle and joint pains 
• Difficulty breathing

Higher rates of long-term symptoms were seen in:

• Women 
• Black/African American respondents
• Patients with moderate to severe symptoms during their initial infections
• People aged 39 and older
• People with pre-existing conditions 

Women had nearly three times higher odds than men of experiencing symptoms at two months post-testing. In addition, said Zhu, Black patients were more likely than White patients to have multiple symptoms. 

What It Means

The study highlights the need to include diverse groups in long-COVID research. Further work is needed to understand and remove the structural and socioeconomic barriers that lead to increased risk, specifically among Black people, Yomogida said, which may also affect access to care, adding, “Understanding long COVID is going to take more time and bigger sample sizes.” 

*Fell, A. (2021, Oct. 4). One-Third of Long Beach COVID-19 Patients Have Long-COVID Symptoms. UC Davis. https://www.ucdavis.edu/health/covid-19/news/one-third-long-beach-covid-19-patients-have-long-covid-symptoms 

Much about the novel coronavirus, i.e., COVID-19, is still not fully understood. As research progresses and our knowledge of the virus increases, information can change rapidly. We strive to update all of our articles as quickly as possible, but there may occasionally be some lag between scientific developments and our revisions.