What Are The Odds Of Catching 'Long-COVID' In Connecticut?

CONNECTICUT— Most of the 405,000 cases of COVID-19 Connecticut residents have suffered since the start of the pandemic ran their course in a couple of weeks — or so you thought. New research indicates that a surprising number of patients were beaten up in a second round that is only recently being recorded, let alone understood.

A study by researchers at Penn State College of Medicine found that more than half of the 236 million people who have been diagnosed with COVID-19 worldwide since December 2019 suffered from so-called long-COVID. In these cases, the virus survivors experienced a full dance card of complications and residual health issues up to six months after they thought their ordeal was over.

Some of the complications associated with long-COVID are respiratory as you would expect, but others are cardiological and cognitive, and could be as severe as stroke or difficulty walking or concentrating.

Although science has a pretty good handle on what causes the SARS-CoV-2 virus, the research is still sketchy regarding what causes its lingering cousin, and the Penn State study didn't shed much new light. Current educated speculation involves immune-system overdrive triggered by the virus, lingering infection, reinfection or an increased production of antibodies directed at the patient's own systems.

Who gets long-COVID? Older people and those with many serious medical conditions — COVID-19's favorite targets — are the most likely to experience the symptoms, according to the Mayo Clinic. There have been exceptions, with young and otherwise healthy patients suffering the effects for months after infection.

The risk of long-COVID was higher in patients who had more severe COVID-19 symptoms, according to a study published in the medical journal PLOS. It was slightly higher among females and young adults, but there was no difference between white and non-white patients.

"The burden of poor health in COVID-19 survivors is overwhelming," said co-lead investigator Dr. Paddy Ssentongo, assistant professor at the Penn State Center for Neural Engineering. "Among these are the mental health disorders. One's battle with COVID doesn’t end with recovery from the acute infection. Vaccination is our best ally to prevent getting sick from COVID-19 and to reduce the chance of long-COVID even in the presence of a breakthrough infection."

According to Hartford HealthCare, symptoms of long COVID can include:

• Muscle weakness
• Difficulty breathing, speaking or swallowing, possibly resulting from heart or lung problems
• Fatigue
• Balance issues
• Weakness or numbness in your arms and legs, or severe muscle pains
• Difficulty walking or balancing
• Pain
• Headache
• Trouble with thinking and memory
• Stroke
• Mood changes or mental health issues including post-traumatic stress disorder
• Passing out (syncope)
• Abnormal heart rhythms, palpitations or arrhythmia
• Chest discomfort

Of the 2,393,490 Connecticut residents who have completed their vaccine series, 0.81 percent have contracted the virus, up 0.07 percent from last week's report from the Department of Public Health. There are 19,474 cases of COVID-19 among fully vaccinated persons in Connecticut as of Nov. 4.

Two hundred and twenty-six coronavirus-related deaths have occurred among the 19,474 fully vaccinated persons confirmed with COVID-19. These deaths represent 17.7 percent of all COVID-19 deaths since Feb. 9, 2021, up 5.2 percent from last week's data drop from the state Department of Public Health.

Twenty-five residents have died from COVID-19 over the past seven days, down from last week's report of 30 deaths from the state Department of Public Health. The coronavirus death toll in the state is currently 8,776.

Nationwide, coronavirus-related deaths have trended downward (by 25 percent) over the past seven days, even as the number of cases ticked upward by 6 percent, according to the World Health Organization.

The charts above and below show the "relative risk," or the difference in risk when comparing rates between vaccinated and unvaccinated persons.

The latest data show unvaccinated residents have an 15 times higher risk of dying from the coronavirus, compared to the vaccinated. Their risk of hospitalization is 10 times greater.

Although coronavirus deaths in Connecticut have declined markedly since February, it is important to note that death — and hospitalization — rates have consistently been higher among unvaccinated persons compared to fully vaccinated persons.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Mayo Clinic, 81.5 percent of Connecticut's eligible population, or 71 percent of the state's total population, has received all their COVID-19 vaccine shots as of Nov. 7. The state's vaccination rate is tied with Maine's, and second behind only Vermont.

About 58.3 percent of Americans have completed their vaccine series, according to the CDC. That's up 0.7 percent from last week.

Predictably, residents in the eastern area of the state, with the highest coronavirus infection rates, are also least likely to be fully-vaccinated against COVID-19, according to the data released by DPH.

Mansfield remains the outlier, still with less than 41 percent of its population fully vaccinated (up 3 percent from last week). Of all Connecticut municipalities, only Canaan has fully vaccinated all its residents.

As of Thursday, those residents fully vaccinated against COVID-19 include more than 95 percent of those over the age of 65, 92 percent of those between 55-64 (up 1 percent from last week), 83 percent of those between 45-54, 84 percent of those between 35-44 (up 1 percent from last week), 77 percent of those between 25-34 (up 1 percent from last week), 71 percent of those between 18-24, 80 percent of those between 16-17, and 71 percent of those between 12-15. Except where noted, there has been no percentage increase in the number vaccinated in each age tier since last week.

A new coronavirus vaccine-eligible age tier opened up this week, following the CDC's recommendation to states that the Pfizer vaccine be made available to children aged 5-11.

The vaccine hesitancy among Connecticut residents can best be illustrated in the graph above, which shows the progress toward full vaccination for each age tier from the start of their eligibility is up less than a half-point from last week.

The state's daily coronavirus positivity rate reported on Friday afternoon was 1.33 percent. That's a drop of just under one percentage point from the previous day, and nearly two points down from Wednesday's rate.

Hospitalizations dropped by 12 beds overnight Friday. There were 197 patients reported hospitalized with laboratory-confirmed COVID-19 at the end of the week. Of those, 88 (24.9 percent) are fully vaccinated.

Most of those hospitalized (61) are in New Haven County.

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