Mild Covid infection leads to attention and memory issues, study says

People who do not suffer long Covid symptoms can still have reduced attention and memory six to nine months after recovering from mild Covid infection, a study by Britain’s Oxford University says.

In long Covid cases, concentration levels, forgetfulness and fatigue are some of the features that affects a person.

The participants in the study who did not had any long Covid-19 symptoms were asked to complete exercises to test their memory and cognitive ability. The researchers say the participants had difficulty recalling personal experiences or called episodic memory, up to six months after the infection.

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The individuals also had bigger decline in attention span when compared to uninfected persons up to nine months after contracting the virus, Reuters has reported.

“What is surprising is that although our Covid-19 survivors did not feel any more symptomatic at the time of testing, they showed degraded attention and memory,” Dr Sijia Zhao of the Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford was quoted as saying.

“Our findings reveal that people can experience some chronic cognitive consequences for months.”

However, the researchers said for individuals episodic memory and attention span returned significantly after six and nine months, respectively.