Long COVID is the patient-preferred term used to describe symptoms lasting more than four weeks after a COVID-19 infection. Children and young people can also suffer from long COVID following even a mild infection with the virus. The latest figures from the UK’s Office for National Statistics show an estimated 69,000 children are living with long COVID, 41,000 of whom have had symptoms for at least a year.
The most common symptoms of long COVID in children are fatigue and headaches, but young people can also have a range of other symptoms including chest pain, persistent cough, dizziness, nausea, abdominal pain, anxiety and low mood.
We don’t know whether all children with long COVID will recover or how long this will take. Parents’ narratives suggest that symptoms may fluctuate over time, and that it’s not uncommon to have a period of apparent recovery and then relapse some months later. The course of the illness is not linear.
