What It Means to Be a Coronavirus “Long-Hauler”

April 22, 2021

Updated January 26, 2021

Q&A about lingering symptoms of COVID-19

Q: Are coronavirus long-haulers still contagious?

A: It’s not very likely, but it’s a sticky question to answer. Typically after having an active infection like COVID-19, the contagiousness goes away after a week or so and you start to recover. We less commonly see persistent fevers in this group, which hints that they probably aren’t infectious months later, but it can vary. The vast majority of long-haulers test negative for COVID-19, despite lingering symptoms. We define a long-hauler as still having some sort of symptom 28 days or later after they were first infected.