He explained that his concern is also linked to the high rates of chronic non-communicable diseases in the British Virgin Islands.

“The cases that are recovering, we are having a few persons who are having a longer course of COVID-19, so that’s a bit concerning. And as you know in the BVI, we have a very high rate of chronic diseases: diabetes, hypertension, obesity and these other types of issues, and as we have said, these increase the mobility and mortality with respect to COVID-19,” he said during a broadcast on Friday, August 6.

He continued: “So we have seen a bit of that in our cases, in the sense that some of them are taking a little longer to clear.”

“The other issue we are seeing is in some persons who have actually cleared COVID-19, continue to have some symptoms. So people have complained about chronic fatigue, headaches, nausea, chest pains, shortness of breath and other similar symptoms to what we consider long COVID-19 or prolonged COVID-19 symptomology. So that is something that we are actually observing.”

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said although most people with COVID-19 get better within weeks of illness, some people experience post-COVID conditions, which are a wide range of new, returning or ongoing health problems for several weeks after they were first infected with the virus.

“These post-COVID conditions may also be known as long COVID, long-haul COVID, post-acute COVID-19, long-term effects of COVID, or chronic COVID,” it said.

It continued: “CDC and experts around the world are working to learn more about short and long-term health effects associated with COVID-19, who gets them, and why.”