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People who had mild cases of COVID-19 are still experiencing symptoms eight months later, a new study suggests.

Researchers found that one in 10 healthcare workers reported fatigue or a loss of taste and smell more than 30 weeks after clearing the infection.

What's more, these moderate-to-severe symptoms were having a negative impact on their work, social or home life.
 
The team, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, Sweden, says that the findings provide further evidence for the importance of vaccination.

For the study, published in JAMA, the team collected data from the COMMUNITY study being conducted in Sweden, which looks at immunity after coronavirus.

In the first wave, blood samples were collected from 2,149 employees at Danderyd Hospital, in Stockholm, between April 15 and May 8 of last year.

Every four months, blood samples were drawn and participants answered questions about long-term symptoms and their impact on quality of life. 

In a third-follow up, in January 2021, the team looked at 323 healthcare workers who had had mild COVID-19 at least eight months earlier and compared them with 1,072 employees who had not has the disease up to that point.

Results showed 26 percent of those who had tested positive in the past had at least one symptom that lasted more than two months compared to nine percent in the control group.

A total of 21.4 percent said their symptoms were still lingering after four months and 14.9 percent said the symptoms persisted after eight months. 

The most common long-term symptom was loss of smell, experienced by 14.6 percent at least two months later and by nine percent eight months later.

Rounding out the top three long-lasting symptoms were fatigue and loss of taste, respectively.