NYC to study COVID-19s long-term effects on local population – SILive.com

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. New York Citys Department of Health and Mental Hygiene will recruit up to 10,000 New Yorkers to study the long-term effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19), the department announced Wednesday.

Over several years, the Health Department will collect New York City-specific data on how the coronavirus impacts individuals over time, conducting multiple surveys with the studys recruits about the virus impact on their health.

City Health Commissioner Dr. Ashwin Vasan thanked the participants in the study, which will launch later this year and will focus on communities disproportionately impacted by the pandemic.

We know that the end of an emergency must also be the beginning of a process of learning and understanding so we are better prepared and can support COVID survivors over time, Vasan said. This work -- to study the long-term impacts of COVID on peoples health -- will inform the future of care people receive. It will also develop our understanding of the disease and expand our knowledge of what people are experiencing, which can be confusing and disorienting without this understanding.

The Health Department will work with community-based organizations and those supporting Long COVID research and advocacy. A panel assembled from those groups will provide subject-matter expertise and awareness of issues of importance to people living with Long COVID, according to the Health Department.

New Yorkers recovering from COVID-19 or Long COVID can get assistance by calling 212-COVID19 to reach NYC Health + Hospitals AfterCare program and be connected to one of its three COVID-19 Centers of Excellence, which are located in the Bronx, Queens and Brooklyn.

Dr. Amanda Johnson, director of AfterCare and assistant vice president of Ambulatory Care and Population Health at NYC Health + Hospitals, said the AfterCare work coupled with the Health Departments study will help city health experts better understand the long-term impacts of COVID-19.

I want to assure New Yorkers recovering from COVID-19 or living with Long COVID that you are not alone connections to care and other resources are a phone call away at 212-COVID19, Johnson said. AfterCares work contacting over a half million New Yorkers recovering from COVID-19 and the Health Departments launch of a comprehensive study of the complex, multi-symptomatic impacts of Long COVID will ensure no one in our city suffers in silence, and that New Yorkers have access to the most helpful resources available.

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NYC to study COVID-19s long-term effects on local population - SILive.com