Introduction:

With the evolution of the COVID-19 pandemic, it was observed that this infection behaves like an iceberg: at the apex there are the complications in the context of acute infection and at the base there are those symptoms that persist in the time and prevent the patient from full recovery.

Objective:

To determine the prevalence of persistent symptoms in patients diagnosed with COVID-19 followed by the telemedicine area of ​​the Infection Control Department of the Hospital de Clínicas, San Lorenzo, Paraguay, during the period August, 2020-April, 2021.

Methodology:

An observational, descriptive, retrospective cross-sectional study design was applied, with non-probabilistic sampling of consecutive cases. Two hundred thirty-six digital questionnaires from patients followed by the telemedicine area between August, 2020 and April, 2021 were included.

Results:

The mean age was 36 ± 10 years, 71.2% was female, 61% of the patients came from the Central Department and 58.9% was health professionals. Twenty-nine-point seven percent suffered from obesity while 86.9% presented a mild condition. Sixty-six-point nine percent presented persistent symptoms, fatigue being the most common (66.5%) and the symptoms lasted less than three months in 55%.

Conclusions:

The mean age showed a majority of the young population, especially women from the Central Department. More than half qualified as health professionals, most were obese, almost all had mild COVID-19, and the most frequent persistent symptom was fatigue lasting less than 3 months.

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