When coronavirus symptoms don’t go away

So far, nearly 70 million people have contracted the coronavirus around the world. More than 1.5 million people have died from Covid-19, and millions of others have been hospitalized. But there are also many cases where patients develop mild symptoms that only last for a few weeks or show no symptoms at all.
And then, there’s long Covid. That’s when patients still experience symptoms months after a Covid infection. There’s still a lot that researchers don’t understand about the novel coronavirus – and the same goes for long Covid.
We do know that thousands of people say they’ve been struggling with longer-term symptoms. Some estimates say about 10 percent of COVID-19 patients deal with lasting complications. They may include breathlessness, joint pain and fatigue.
Patients are left in pain or unable to breathe properly. Simple day-to-day tasks become massive challenges. And yet, long Covid is not yet recognized as a disease in many places.
So what exactly is long Covid – and how is it different from COVID-19?