Detailing the Sequelae After Recovery from COVID-19

Protracted sequelae after COVID-19 are well known, but the relative frequencies of specific symptoms and diagnoses have not been quantified. In a retrospective cohort study involving some 267,000 patients with COVID-19 diagnosed in 2020, researchers used U.S. national claims data, outpatient laboratory test data, and inpatient admission data to form three comparator groups: A historical comparator from 2019, an uninfected group from 2020, and a group with viral lower respiratory tract illness. Among patients with COVID-19, 8.2% required hospital admission and 1.1% required treatment in a critical care unit.

In analysis matched by propensity score, 10.0% of COVID-19 cases experienced one new sequela and 4.0% had more than one new sequela nece…