Four per cent of adults report long-term coronavirus symptoms
RIVM figures show that symptoms persist for several years in some respondents and limit daily life.
Four per cent of adults in the Netherlands reported in 2024 symptoms that may have resulted from a coronavirus infection and had lasted at least three months. For a large proportion, the symptoms lasted a year or more, according to the Health Monitor for Adults and Older People.
The figures come from the 2024 Health Monitor for Adults and Older People, conducted by RIVM, GGD organisations and CBS. They concern self-reported symptoms. In about a quarter of people with long-term symptoms, post-covid had been diagnosed by a doctor; the other respondents had symptoms they possibly linked to coronavirus.
Of the adults with long-term symptoms, 57 per cent said they had lasted for one to three years. For more than a quarter, the symptoms lasted three years or longer. Nearly three quarters of this group felt limited in daily life. The reported symptoms ranged from fatigue and concentration problems to shortness of breath and sensitivity to light or sound.
Post-covid is not a single condition with the same course for everyone. RIVM uses the term for symptoms that persist after an infection, generally for longer than three months. Their severity, combination and duration vary from person to person. The figures therefore say something about the scale of long-term symptoms in the population, but not about an individual's course of illness.
Another RIVM measurement found at the end of 2024 that three per cent of adults had post-covid at that time. That difference need not be a contradiction: the Health Monitor asked about long-term symptoms in 2024, while the quarterly study used a different measurement point and questionnaire. In that second study, 36 per cent of people with post-covid had already had symptoms for more than three years.
The Dutch government funds research into post-covid and supports C-support, which informs and guides people with long-term symptoms. RIVM says much remains unknown about the causes and the best approach. Researchers are therefore following groups of people over longer periods and comparing them with people without a confirmed infection or long-term symptoms.
The new figures chiefly underline the long-term burden on society. They provide no indication that every persistent symptom is caused by coronavirus and do not constitute an individual diagnosis. For policy, better recording, accessible support and research into recovery and treatment are particularly important.
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The figures and definitions were checked directly against RIVM and the Dutch government. The text avoids presenting population figures as an individual medical diagnosis.
- confirmed Four per cent of adults reported long-term symptoms after coronavirus in 2024. — This is the main finding of the 2024 Health Monitor for Adults and Older People. source
- confirmed Fifty-seven per cent reported symptoms that lasted one to three years. — RIVM gives this distribution in its news report. source
- confirmed More than a quarter reported symptoms that lasted three years or longer. — This duration category appears in the same RIVM publication. source
- confirmed In another RIVM measurement, 36 per cent of people with post-covid had symptoms for longer than three years. — This percentage appears in the summary of quarterly round 14. source
Editor's note
The key figures come from two different RIVM measurements. That difference is explained explicitly; the figures are not an individual diagnosis and do not mean that all reported symptoms have been medically attributed to coronavirus.Sources
- Vier procent volwassenen heeft langdurige klachten na corona — RIVM
- Quarterly study among adults – round 14 — RIVM
- Long COVID Study — RIVM
- Post-covid — Rijksoverheid
More on this in Dutch media
- NRC — „post-covid corona”
- NU.nl — „post-covid corona”
- De Telegraaf — „post-covid corona”