Guidance
This guideline covers identifying, assessing and managing the long-term effects of COVID-19, often described as ‘long COVID’. It makes recommendations about care in all healthcare settings for adults, children and young people who have new or ongoing symptoms 4 weeks or more after the start of acute COVID-19. It also includes advice on organising services for long COVID.
This guideline has been developed jointly by NICE, the Scottish Intercollegiate Guidelines Network (SIGN) and the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP).
On 11 November, we made new recommendations and updated existing recommendations on identification; planning care; multidisciplinary rehabilitation; follow up, monitoring and discharge; and service organisation. We also updated the list of common symptoms, emphasising that these may be different for children.
When using this guideline, follow the usual professional guidelines, standards and laws (including those on equalities, safeguarding, communication and mental capacity), as described in
We have published this guideline in MAGICapp, a global evidence ecosystem already being used by key partners such as the Australian Taskforce for COVID-19 and the World Health Organization. The MAGICapp platform allows the efficient sharing of evidence between guideline developers from around the world. This means NICE can develop and update its COVID-19 guidance more quickly and efficiently as new evidence is assessed. We collaborated with the Australian National COVID-19 Clinical Evidence Taskforce during development of the guideline, and acknowledge their contribution to identifying and reviewing the evidence for therapeutics.
To access the guideline in MAGICapp, select the topic area you are interested in.
Download the PDF for a fully accessible version of the guideline.
The guideline is part of a suite of products that NICE has developed to support healthcare staff during the pandemic. See our list of COVID guidelines.
Disclaimer
The MAGICapp publication platform is owned and operated by the MAGIC Evidence Ecosystem Foundation. While certain NICE content may be available on this platform, NICE is not responsible for the operation of this site, including the collection and use of user data, and you visit this site entirely at your own risk.
Your responsibility
The recommendations in this guideline represent the view of NICE, arrived at after careful consideration of the evidence available. When exercising their judgement, professionals and practitioners are expected to take this guideline fully into account, alongside the individual needs, preferences and values of their patients or the people using their service. It is not mandatory to apply the recommendations, and the guideline does not override the responsibility to make decisions appropriate to the circumstances of the individual, in consultation with them and their families and carers or guardian.
All problems (adverse events) related to a medicine or medical device used for treatment or in a procedure should be reported to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency using the Yellow Card Scheme.
Local commissioners and providers of healthcare have a responsibility to enable the guideline to be applied when individual professionals and people using services wish to use it. They should do so in the context of local and national priorities for funding and developing services, and in light of their duties to have due regard to the need to eliminate unlawful discrimination, to advance equality of opportunity and to reduce health inequalities. Nothing in this guideline should be interpreted in a way that would be inconsistent with complying with those duties.
Commissioners and providers have a responsibility to promote an environmentally sustainable health and care system and should assess and reduce the environmental impact of implementing NICE recommendations wherever possible.