NTF adviser: 50% of hospitalized COVID-19 patients experience ‘long COVID’

As high as 50% of people who got hospitalized due to COVID-19 have experienced the coronavirus disease’s long haul effect, a government adviser said on Tuesday.

In an ANC interview, National Task Force (NTF) Against COVID-19 medical adviser Dr. Ted Herbosa explained that people who develop long COVID continue to have inflammation in the brain, heart, or lungs despite having recovered from COVID-19.

“What we’ve discovered is that it’s actually very high among the hospitalized. If you are hospitalized for COVID, ICU, as high as 50% continue to experience what we now term as long haul COVID or long COVID,” he said.

He, however, emphasized that someone who has recovered from the viral disease is no longer infectious even if he or she still exhibits symptoms.

Some of long COVID’s symptoms include “brain fog” wherein one could not think as right as before, and fatigue, especially among athletes, who could no longer be as active post-COVID.

If people suffer these symptoms, Herbosa said that they should continue their consultation with their physicians.

Further, now that the National Capital Region and several other areas are under Alert Level 1, Herbosa said there should be a paradigm shift from the government telling people what to do to people doing self-regulation to help limit the spread of COVID-19 infections.

“Take that responsibility to inform them [that you tested positive], hindi na ‘yung national government, hindi na ‘yung local government. We’re shifting to this mode na naintindihan na natin ‘yung [we understand the] pathogenesis ng disease na ‘to, how it spreads, and we should be health literate,” he added.

The Inter-Agency Task Force (IATF) approved placing the NCR and 38 more areas under a COVID-19 Alert Level 1 from March 1, 2022 until March 15, 2022.

Aside from this de-escalation to the “new normal,” Herbosa noted that March 1 also marks the first anniversary that the country started administering anti-COVID vaccines.

“We started one year ago, March 1, 2021, the first day of people being vaccinated with the Sinovac vaccine. Today, we have vaccinated 63 million Filipinos, fully vaccinated, and 10 million with boosters. We got here because of these very good efforts to vaccinate the people,” he said.

The Philippines on Monday reported 951 new COVID-19 infections, the lowest daily case count recorded this year. — RSJ, GMA News