Background Little is known about long-term recovery from COVID-19 disease, especially in non-hospitalized individuals. In this longitudinal study we present symptoms registered during the acute phase as well as long COVID, i.e. long-lasting COVID-19 symptoms, in patients from the Faroe Islands. Methods All consecutive patients with confirmed RT-PCR testing from April to June 2020 were invited to participate in this study for the assessment of long COVID. Demographic and clinical characteristics and self-reported acute and persistent symptoms were assessed using a standardized detailed questionnaire administered at enrollment and at repeated phone interviews in the period 22 th April to Aug 16 th. Results Of the 180 participants (96.3% of the 187 eligible COVID-19 patients), 53.1% reported persistence of at least one symptom after a mean of 125 days after symptoms onset, 33.3% reported one or two symptoms and 19.4% three or more symptoms. At the last follow-up, 46.7% were asymptomatic compared with 4.4 % during the acute phase. The most prevalent persistent symptoms were fatigue, loss of smell and taste, and arthralgias. Conclusions Our results show that it might take months for symptoms to resolve, even among non-hospitalized persons with mild illness course in the acute phase. Continued monitoring for long COVID is needed.

Introduction High-mobility group box-1 protein (HMGB1) has been known as a chromosomal protein for many years. HMGB1 has recently been shown to be a proinflammatory cytokine with a role in the immunopathogenesis of sepsis. Lipopolysaccharide-binding protein (LBP) has a central role in the innate immune response when the host is challenged by bacterial pathogens. Procalcitonin (PCT) has been suggested as a marker of severe bacterial infections and sepsis. The aim of the present study was to investigate levels of HMGB1, LBP and PCT in a well-characterised sepsis cohort. The study plan included analysis of the levels of the inflammatory markers in relation to the severity of infection, to the prognosis and to the ability to identify patients with bacteraemia.

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