Long COVID worries persist amid Korea's transition to post-Omicron era

A street in Myeong-dong in central Seoul is crowded with people, Sunday. Yonhap

Government lifts most social distancing measures; daily cases fall to 10-week low of 47,743

By Lee Hyo-jin

While the country is transitioning in phases toward a post-Omicron-era, a significant number of COVID-19 survivors, who are suffering from the lingering symptoms of the virus, are finding it hard to return to their daily lives.

For Kim So-hyun, a 29-year-old office worker in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, her COVID-19 symptoms have not gone away, even though her required seven-day self-isolation period ended in late March.

"I've been suffering from migraines and fatigue, along with coughing, which get worse at night. But what worries me more is that there doesn't seem to be a cure for this, and I don't know how long these symptoms will last," she said.

Her questions about the debilitating condition still remain unanswered even after she visited a hospital last week, where she was prescribed cough syrup and advised to rest.

Like Kim, roughly 10 percent to 30 percent of people who have recovered from COVID-19 suffer from extended post-viral effects, known as "long COVID," according to the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunization.

But due to a lack of investigation, the exact causes of long COVID are not yet well understood and thus treatments largely focus on helping patients cope with their symptoms while trying to return to their daily lives.

Local experts warn that the country should brace for a surge of COVID-19 long-haulers from May onwards through the summer, given that about 90 percent of the total number of infections in Korea occurred during the Omicron wave from January to March.

Myongji Hospital in Goyang, Gyeonggi Province, which has been operating a post-COVID-19 clinic since March 21, said that a total of 1,077 patients have visited the center as of April 11.

According to the hospital, among them, 695 patients, or 65 percent, were women, and 382 were men. By age, 217 were in their 50s, accounting for 20 percent, followed by those in their 40s (18 percent) and 30s (14 percent), while patients in their 70s and above accounted for 10 percent.

The most frequent symptoms experienced among them were coughing, fatigue, breathing difficulties, bronchitis and abnormal sputum.

"Most of the patients who visited our clinic suffered from more than one symptom," said Ha Eun-hye, a pulmonologist at Myongji Hospital who heads the post-COVID-19 clinic, explaining the complex of symptoms that constitute COVID-19's aftereffects. "Therefore, it is important that patients suffering from the aftereffects of the coronavirus are treated through cooperation among other departments."

In response to calls for the government to come up with standardized treatment guidelines for long COVID, the National Institute of Health has launched an investigation among 1,000 former COVID-19 patients under age 60 who do not have underlying health conditions, and plans to announce the results within the latter half of this year.

A COVID-19 screening center in Uijeongbu, Gyeonggi Province, is nearly empty, Monday, as the country has been seeing a decline in the number of daily new infections and rapid antigen tests are no longer being offered there. Yonhap

Meanwhile, Korea took a big step in the transition to post-Omicron daily life, Monday, when it lifted almost all social distancing measures, except the required wearing of face masks.

Multiuse facilities such as bars, eateries and cafes can now stay open without limits on operating hours, while private gatherings and large-scale events, including weddings, rallies and sports games can now be held without attendance caps.

More changes may come in the next few weeks, as the government aims to treat the coronavirus like an endemic disease, managing it more routinely within the general medical system.

Treatment facilities and hospital beds reserved for COVID-19 patients are expected to be reduced gradually in the coming weeks. Starting in late May, the costs of treatment may no longer be covered by Korea's national health insurance, and those confirmed infected may not be subject to mandatory self-isolation.

According to the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency, the country added 47,743 new COVID-19 infection cases for Sunday, raising the aggregate total to 16,353,495.

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