Impact of the second wave of coronavirus in India is quite evident at the moment on its healthcare system with the oxygen shortage, lack of hospital beds, lesser number of testing and treatment issues. New studies have suggested that healthcare issue may persist due to effect of long term effect of COVID-19 in the future also.
Clear definition of long term COVID-19 cannot be found yet. It has been said that effect of Corinavirus can persist for a long time. It can take weeks or even months to completely recover from the coronavirus. It can be seen with the both children and adults.

Recent studies published in Nature magazine has analyzed over 73, 435 coronavirus cases in USA that have not required hospitalization. However, death risk may be higher than 60% on the occasion. 20% of these patients may require outpatient medical care following to the infection.
VA St. Louis Health Care System Chief of Research and Development Ziyad Al Aly has said “Long Covid is a multifaceted disease; it can affect multiple organ systems including respiratory, cardiovascular, nervous, mental health, metabolic, gastrointestinal, kidneys, and other organ systems”

Symptoms in children post stay at the hospital

Published report by CDC has stated that 60% of the patients without hospitalization have required visiting the doctor within the six months of the coronavirus. On the occasion, primary diagnosis is received by them.
By interviewing 518 children from Bashlyaeva Children Municipa Clinical Hospital, Moscow it has been found out that 26% of them have been suffering from the persistent symptoms after the COVID-19. It has been observed even after nine months of the disease. On the occasion, fatigue, sensory issues and sleep disturbance have been experienced mostly.
Some of the children have suffered from more than one long COVID-19 symptoms. Study published by UK authorities has suggested that 13% children have experienced minimum one symptom after five weeks of coronavirus.

Public Health Crisis due to Long COVID

If the issues related to Long COVID are not treated properly then it may lead to another health crisis. Associate Professor of Public Health from University of Southampton named Dr. Nisreen A Alwan has said “World leaders should be horrified at the thought of #LongCovid that will cripple countries with phenomenal rates of infection, particularly those with struggling health services & no social security. Do they really think it’ll be over after the massive wave of deaths? No it won’t”
Health system should be boosted while concentrating on the multi-care and multidisciplinary approach.
Andrew Chan from Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health has stated “Because Long Covid impacts so many different organ systems, it’s not going to be the purview of infectious diseases doctors, it’s not going to be just the lung doctors, it’s going to require people with different specialization and different backgrounds of expertise.”
Till now, data on Long COVID in India has not been found yet.