Background: Post-COVID syndrome (PCS) is a complex, multisystem illness that may follow SARS-CoV-2/COVID-19 infection. As there is limited evidence for individual therapies and no singular treatment for PCS, guidelines endorse a multidisciplinary approach. This is a case report of a patient with PCS benefiting from a comprehensive approach including acupuncture with symptom-titrated physical activity (STPA). Case: A 50-year-old woman presented from a Long-COVID Clinic referral to an outpatient hospital-affiliated acupuncturist. She had 8 months of fatigue, anosmia, chest pressure, palpitations, and other symptoms following mild assay-confirmed COVID-19. Prior/concurrent medical testing revealed multisystem-inflammatory involvement (pericardial effusion, thyroid dysfunction, and elevated d -dimers). Cardiology/pulmonology cleared the patient for exercise to tolerance considering that serious pathology was absent. The acupuncturist's Traditional Chinese Medicine impression was of Qi Deficiency of the Heart, Lung, Spleen, and Kidney. This patient received 7 sessions of scalp, auricular, and body acupuncture. Physical-therapist (PT)-led STPA began 1-week post-acupuncture, involving 6 30-minute exercise sessions while monitoring her heart rate, with as-needed rest. Results: The patient's chest pressure and palpitations resolved after 1 acupuncture treatment. With 6 additional treatments, spanning 9 weeks, overlapping with PT-led SPTA, she recovered completely and resumed her normal exercise. Conclusions: Acupuncture appeared to facilitate PCS recovery. However, the independent effects of acupuncture are less clear, given the concurrent STPA/exercise therapy, and should be explored using large study designs. Acupuncture is an attractive potential PCS therapy, considering its holistic approach and that it may be added to a multidisciplinary, guideline-concordant regimen.

We describe a new species of Indo-Papuan groundsnake (Stegonotus) from a single adult male specimen collected in 1953 near Kamro, a village in Maybrat Regency, West Papua, Indonesia. The specimen had been considered a member of S. batjanensis, a well-defined species from the northern Maluku Islands over 500 km to the northwest with which it shares the key characteristic of having the 3rd, 4th, and 5th supralabial scales touching the eyes. The new species can be differentiated from S. batjanensis as well as all other species of Stegonotus by having its 5th supralabial scale projecting forward from behind the eye to form a narrow contact zone with the eye. In addition, it is differentiated by the combination of the following characteristics: seven supralabials, the 3rd–5th touching the eye; eight infralabials, the 1st–4th touching the anterior genial; four scales separating the posterior genial and the first gastrostege; dorsal scales in 17 rows, diminishing to 15 posteriorly; a low number of ventrals (181 in the holotype) combined with a high number of subcaudals (105 in the holotype), the latter comprising 37% of the scales on the ventral surface, the highest proportion in the genus. The description of this species is of interest beyond adding to the species diversity of Stegonotus: it allowed us to explore additional characteristics to resolve taxonomic questions in a morphologically conservative genus, it illustrates the need for additional herpetological survey work on the Bird’s Head Peninsula, and its initial misidentification serves as a reminder of the continued relevance and importance of natural history collections as repositories for specimens and data that influence our knowledge today by reaching out from the past.