Papers and blogs for discussion

In total 120 studies in 130 publications were included. Length of follow-up varied from 12 weeks to over 12 months. Few studies had low risk of bias. All complete and subgroup analyses except one had I2 ≥ 90%, with prevalence of persistent symptoms ranging between 0% and 93%. Studies using routine healthcare records tended to report lower prevalence of persistent symptoms/pathology than self-report. However, studies systematically investigating pathology in all participants at follow up tended to report the highest estimates of all three. Studies of hospitalised cases had generally higher estimates than community-based studies. Interpretation: The way in which Long Covid is defined and measured affects prevalence estimation. Given the widespread nature of SARSCoV2 infection globally, the burden of chronic illness is likely to be substantial even using the most conservative estimates.