‘1 out of 3 people with COVID will have chronic symptoms’: Doctors warn

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/ WMGT) — COVID-19 remains at the forefront as we continue to follow CDC guidelines to stay safe. However, what about those who contracted and overcame the virus? 

Doctors at Medical Center Navicent Health say 1 out of 3 COVID patients will have chronic symptoms. Also, they say that can happen with other infections too.

Dr. Jeffery Stephens say people who experience health problem three months after their initial diagnosis experience one of the chronic COVID symptoms.

Dr. Stephens says the biggest problem patients have is fatigue. However, he says lingering symptoms may come from on-going virus activity.

“Fatigue, cough, there can be cardiac problems,” Dr. Stephens said. “There can be problems with thinking, and can be long term. And of course with your lungs if you pneumonia whether it’s any kind of pneumonia you can have damage to the lungs and scarring so a lot of people have on-going symptoms if they were actually sick enough to have it in their lungs.”

Dr. Stephens says COVID-19 is still a new virus, so doctors are still studying the long term effects.