Coronavirus disease, also known as COVID-19, is an infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus type 2, which began to spread in 2019. The first known patient of the disease was diagnosed in Wuhan, China, in late 2019. The disease has since become one of the deadliest epidemics in human history, with massive outbreaks and rapid escalation in countries worldwide. The COVID-19 outbreak was confirmed to have spread to Canada on January 27, 2020, with the first confirmed patient travelling from Wuhan via Guangzhou to Toronto. As of February 2021, a total of 854,181 coronavirus cases have been reported in Canada, of which 801,912 have recovered and 21,789 have died. Ontario and Quebec are the two provinces with the highest number of infections in Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Since the outbreak of the Coronavirus, evidence suggests that the infection of the virus adversely affects different systems in the human body, namely the immune system, respiratory system, cardiovascular system and neurological system. As of February 2021, there have been 854,181 cases of COVID-19, 21,789 deaths caused by the virus and 801,912 recoveries in Canada. Despite the ratio of deaths to recoveries being a positive one, the recovery from COVID-19 consists of many adverse long-term and short-term health effects that damage multiple systems in the human body. Therefore many of those who have been diagnosed will be unable to recover fully.
Despite there being limited research on the long-term health effects of being infected by the virus, as COVID-19 is relatively new in the field of research, there have been reports of patients experiencing fatigue, body aches, shortness of breath, difficulty concentrating, inability to exercise, headache, trouble sleeping, and more severely, injury to the heart and kidneys after recovery. This indicates that some individuals have yet to return to full health and ultimately may not despite their initial recovery from the virus. This is particularly common in the elderly as they have a greater likelihood of experiencing the lingering effects of COVID-19. However, young and healthy people can also experience symptoms of COVID-19 weeks or months after their recovery, despite the misconception that young people are unaffected by the virus.
The most common symptoms which linger post-recovery include:
Other symptoms include: