ALABAMA, USA — 'When will COVID end?' is an open-ended question. If you've gotten COVID-19 and recovered but are still experiencing some symptoms, you're not alone.
Even people who had a mild case of the coronavirus can have symptoms days and weeks after getting over it.
The most common long term symptoms are fatigue, shortness of breath, cough, joint pain, and chest pain. More serious long-term impacts like kidney injury and inflammation of the heart are less common.
People have also reported long term effects like brain fog, depression, headache, fever, and heart palpitations.
The virus doesn't just impact the lungs. UAB Chief of Hospital Medicine, Dr. Kierstin Kennedy, said people who have had COVID-19 can develop kidney failure and liver damage.
Dr. Kennedy said, "Often times it takes days to weeks after they are no longer infectious to continue to treat their kidneys or treat their liver or treat whatever superimposed infections they might have developed as a result of having COVID."
Along with increased hospitalization rates, Dr. Kennedy says treating patients with long term effects is contributing to the strain on the health care system.
WATCH: Huntsville/Madison County COVID-19 update, January 13