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Defining Long COVID

Overview

While policymakers, researchers, public health professionals, and health care providers are expanding our collective understanding of Long COVID day by day, the illness is not yet well understood. Therefore, aligning on a definition—or even a name—for Long COVID is a difficult task, and “official” names and definitions change from institution to institution.

Photo of a spiral notebook on a wooden desk with a handwritten daily task list and a coffee cup.

Existing Definitions of Long COVID

“Long COVID is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after initial COVID-19 or SARS-CoV-2 infection. The signs, symptoms, and conditions are present four weeks or more after the acute phase of infection; may be multisystemic; and may present with a relapsing–remitting pattern and progression or worsening over time, with the possibility of severe and life-threatening events even months or years after infection. Long COVID is not one condition. It represents many potentially overlapping entities, likely with different biological causes and different sets of risk factors and outcomes.”

—National Research Action Plan on Long COVID, prepared by the Department of Health and Human Services⁶

“Post COVID-19 condition is defined as the illness that occurs in people who have a history of probable or confirmed SARS-CoV-2 infection; usually within three months from the onset of COVID-19, with symptoms and effects that last for at least two months. The symptoms and effects of post COVID-19 condition cannot be explained by an alternative diagnosis.”

—World Health Organization⁷

“Some people who have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 can experience long-term effects from their infection, known as post-COVID conditions (PCC) or long COVID. People call post-COVID conditions by many names, including: long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, post-acute sequelae of SARS CoV-2 infection (PASC), long-term effects of COVID, and chronic COVID.”

—Centers for Disease Control and Prevention⁸