The second wave is not enough, France also struggles with the ‘post-Covid syndrome’

Control of the coronavirus does not seem to want to give in France, which has seen a very strong increase in cases, to 9,843 new infections in 24 hours, a record since the beginning of the pandemic and the launch of large-scale tests. In total, this week almost 50 thousand infections have been confirmed with more than a million tests carried out.

And as if this were not enough, the country is facing a new, strange, wave of a disease that seems to be linked to Covid-19 and that reaches recovered patients, even many months ago. The newspaper Le Monde speaks of the “mysterious post-Covid syndrome” that has seen many people fall ill in recent months with symptoms such as breathing difficulties, palpitations, physical and mental exhaustion that often force them to stay home, sick. This despite the fact that clinical tests performed by specialists, such as electrocardiograms and respiratory tests, even under stress, are eerily normal. The strange thing is that these psychophysical problems are mostly women between 40 and 50 years old, workers, who have contracted the coronavirus in the past but are officially cured, complete with a negative test repeated several times, and that for Arrivals, they would have contracted the coronavirus in a very mild way.

In some cases the complaints were continuous and in others they reappeared after a period of good general health. “I am exhausted, I cannot breathe or concentrate, I have palpitations and I am in a very bad mood,” Maud, 40, who had contracted a mild form of Covid-19 in March, told the newspaper. She has been experiencing these symptoms for a long time that she can’t seem to rid herself of, but the exams are regular, which has even led her to the point of believing that she is crazy. The problem is that she is not the only one with these types of symptoms. A specialized center called Réhab Covid at the Foch de Suresnes hospital, in the interior of Paris, cannot cope with the influx of people who have requested a medical consultation about a month after the ‘deconfinement’ and after returning to their lives’ normal ‘, even working.

“The big question is precisely this: understand if Covid-19 leaves long-term consequences. And if so, what are they,” he told Le Monde. Nicolas Barizien, sports doctor and head of the functional rehabilitation department at Foch hospital. In France, the rate of positives for Covid-19 tests has been increasing steadily in recent weeks, going from 2.1% on August 10 to 5.4%, according to the latest report from the agency public health. There are currently 5,096 hospitalized patients of which 615 in intensive care.