And the TGA's latest vaccine update reports headache, nausea, fatigue, dizziness and injection site reactions the most common adverse events.
Welcome to The Medical Republic’s COVID Catch-Up.
It’s the day’s COVID-19 news in one convenient post. Email bianca@biancanogrady.com with any tips, comments or feedback.
11 March
- Patients with more than five symptoms in first week of infection more likely to develop long COVID.
- Most common COVID-19 vaccine side effects include headache, nausea, dizziness, TGA reports.
- Latest COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia.
People who experience at least five COVID-19 symptoms in their first week of infection have significantly higher odds of developing long-COVID, new research suggests.
A prospective study followed 4,182 people with COVID-19, who were asked to self-report their symptoms via an app until such time as they experienced no symptoms for seven consecutive days.
The results, published in Nature Medicine, found that overall, symptoms lasted for a median of 11 days, but just over 13% of people had symptoms lasting at least 28 days, 4.5% had symptoms lasting 56 days and 2.6% had symptoms that lasted at least 84 days.
People who had experienced more than five COVID-19 symptoms in their first week of illness had a nearly four-fold higher odds of having their symptoms last longer than 28 days. Fatigue, headache, dyspnoea, sore throat or muscle aches during the first week were the strongest predictors of long-lasting symptoms.
Those with long COVID-19 were also more likely to be older or female, and researchers found an association between asthma and longer duration of symptoms.
The most common long-lasting symptoms were fatigue, headache and upper respiratory symptoms, fever and gastroenterological complaints.
There have been 253 adverse events after COVID-19 vaccinations reported to the Therapeutic Goods Administration in the week to 7 March, most of which were mild events such as headache, nausea, dizziness, fatigue and injection site reactions.
According to the TGA’s latest weekly report, nearly 86,400 vaccine doses have been given to Australians, with an adverse event rate of around 3.8 per 1000.
Still no cases of community transmission of COVID-19 in Australia, so all new infections being reported are in quarantined returned travellers.
Here are the latest COVID-19 infection numbers from around Australia to 9pm Wednesday:
National – 29,075 with 909 deaths
ACT – 123 (1)
NSW – 5220 (5)
NT – 105 (0)
QLD – 1368 (5)
SA – 621 (1)
TAS – 234 (0)
VIC – 20,483 (0)
WA – 921 (2)
