Effects of exercise rehabilitation in patients with long coronavirus disease 2019

In the first phase of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic early in 2020, the main scientific effort was devoted to find the best way to treat the acute phase of the disease. Subsequently, partially because of the availability of long-term follow-up data, there has been an increased attention to chronic consequences of COVID-19 infection. Since follow-up data up to more than 1 year are now available, long COVID-19 has been increasingly recognized, with symptoms lasting several months.1,2 According to a recent meta-analysis including 47 910 patients (age 17–87), more than 50 long-term effects of COVID-19 are recognized. The five most common symptoms of long COVID-19 were fatigue (58%), headache (44%), attention disorder (27%), hair loss (25%), and dyspnoea (24%).3 At 6 months after acute infection, COVID-19 survivors were mainly troubled with fatigue or muscle weakness (63%), sleep difficulties (26%), and anxiety or depression (23%).4...