Dr. Ronan Glynn:

Broadly, a range of studies has estimated the prevalence of long Covid. To be honest, we do not have a firm view on it yet. It is clear that most people who contract Covid-19 will recover quickly. They will have a form of the illness that will not require them to end up in hospital or intensive care, and they will recover relatively quickly in the weeks following the acute infection. A proportion of people, however, will go on to suffer longer-term symptoms for weeks or months following infection. Much work is being done on better understanding the prevalence of these symptoms in Ireland and internationally. The HSE is instituting an approach to ensuring that people who need access to care for these symptoms will have it. In broad terms, then, it appears that approximately 10% of people may experience symptoms for a prolonged duration beyond the acute period. The rate among children and adolescents, though, seems to be much lower. Unfortunately, we do not have a fixed figure. This topic is the subject of significant ongoing research and evidence synthesis.