1/ While New York’s first wave of COVID-19 may have subsided, the city is seeing a growing number of hospital patients checking in with long term symptoms of COVID-19.

Doctors estimate patients with these long-term symptoms is at least 70,000.

Here’s what that looks like:

2/ One center that’s treating these patients is @MountSinaiNYC, where they’ve already checked in upwards of 400. These are just patients that doctor’s there know about — one’s who have insurance, and who’ve heard about the center.

3/ The more than 70,000 patients experiencing these long-term symptoms is an estimate based on New York City’s confirmed cases, which is around 230,000.

Because there were likely many unconfirmed cases, there are likely even more "long haulers."

4/ Patients that come in report brain fog, shortness of breath, trouble thinking, trouble speaking, fevers and chronic fatigue. The overall effect is debilitating. One “long hauler” said “she’d walk too far and need to rest for three days.”

5/ Many are taking leaves of absence from work, which jeopardizes their ability to stay insured.

We don’t know how much long-term treatment will cost, but starting on Sept. 30, it will cost more because many insurers are set to waive patient cost-sharing for COVID treatment.

6/ Which means that at some point, treating long-haulers could become an out of pocket expense, especially for the unemployed.

On leave from her job, one long-hauler told us that at this point, she “was going into her savings.”

7/ And last but not least, so many of these patients continue to say that their doctors don’t believe them. They either don’t believe they had COVID, or insist that, months later, they must have some other disease or underlying condition.

Tests for those costs money too.

8/ You can read the full story about “long haulers” here: https://buff.ly/2RvbgWt 

9/ @THECITYNY will continue to report on long-haulers.

If you have a story you’d like to share with us about long-term COVID-19 symptoms, and you live in New York, drop us a line at [email protected].

10/ This story was part of MISSING THEM, @THECITYNY’s ongoing collaborative project to remember every New Yorker killed by COVID-19.

11/ If you lost someone to COVID or work w/ victims' families, we want to hear from you. Help us remember New Yorkers who died of COVID-19. Here’s how:

Tell us here: http://buff.ly/3dUlxoF 
Call our hotline: (646) 494-1095
Text “remember” to 73224
Or email: [email protected]

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