Bengaluru: The Karnataka Government has decided to constitute a Special Technical Committee to study the long-term effects of COVID-19 by monitoring the health of those who have recovered from the infection after contracting the virus.

The move comes in the backdrop of an increasing number of reports of people, who were discharged after successfully battling COVID-19, returning to hospitals with various health conditions and complications.

Dr. K. Sudhakar, Medical Education and COVID-19 in-charge Minister, said that the Committee will consist of medical experts. In a tweet, he said that the Government will evaluate patients based on whether they had mild or severe symptoms with special focus on people with comorbidities.

“The medical experts team will also develop new strategies for clinical care to improve the long-term health of all those who recovered from COVID-19,” he said in the tweet. 

Dr. Sudhakar said, “Countries across the world are beginning to realise the importance of evaluating the long-term effects of COVID. The Vaccine Research Group of Mayo Clinic in the US has listed organs that may be affected by COVID and also raised concerns over significant cellular damage this virus can cause. Doctors in Chennai who have recovered have complained about  chronic fatigue.” He said, “The expert committee will assess both re-infection and other complications. The findings will help us make suitable modifications in our treatment protocols and post-COVID care. We will soon identify experts and decide on the scope of the study.” 

Earlier, Dr. Sudhakar had sought a clinical study on a re-infection case and said that it is still going on.