Long-term Prognosis at 1.5 years after Infection with Wild-type strain of SARS-CoV-2 and Alpha, Delta, as well as Omicron Variants

International Journal of Infectious Diseases Knowledge is limited on how changing SARS-CoV-2 variants may translate into different characteristics and affect prognosis of patients with long COVID, especially following Omicron variants. We compared long-term prognosis of patients in a Danish Post COVID Clinic infected with wild-type strain, Alpha, Delta, or Omicron variants as well as the pre-Omicron compared to the Omicron period. More than three years after the first COVID-19 cases, several patients suffer from post-infectious health effects called long COVID [1, 2]. These sequelae have been defined as symptoms persisting more than 3 months after initial COVID-19 [3]. Fatigue, concentration difficulties, shortness of breath, and myalgia are among the numerous symptoms associated with long COVID [1, 4, 5]. It was early documented, that Omicron infection resulted in a milder acute course compared to previous variants [6], and understanding the risk and the characteristics of long COVID symptoms following changing variants has been of great interest for planning prevention and rehabilitation strategies. Overall, studies have documented long COVID following all variants, with a lower risk after infection in the Omicron period [4, 7-12], although definitions of long COVID and study populations varies [11, 13]. Three large European studies showed significantly reduced risk of long COVID among Omicron compared to Delta-infected individuals [7], or to previous variants in both vaccinated as well as unvaccinated individuals [14], as well as comparing patients who received a long COVID diagnosis between variants [8].

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