A study conducted in Italy shows that the dominant variant of coronavirus may have a role in the symptoms that people with long COVID have.

The retrospective study assessed data from electronic medical records of 428 patients who were admitted toa hospital in Florence between June 2020 and June 2021, with an average hospital stay of 10 days.

Around 76% of the patients had at least one persistent symptom, including persistent dyspnea (37%), chronic fatigue (36%), insomnia (16%), visual disorders (13%), or brain fog (13%) at a median follow-up of 53 days after discharge from the hospital. The prevalence of persistent dyspnea, myalgia, anxiety, depression, and brain fog symptoms was significantly higher among patients infected from January to April 2021 when the Alpha variant predominated, compared to March to December 2020 when wild-type virus dominated. The prevalence of persistent anosmia and dysgeusia was less when the Alpha variant dominated.

The findings will be presented at the European Congress of Clinical Microbiology & Infectious Diseases (ECCMID)… (Medpage Today)