Metrics details. Many studies have found more severe COVID outcomes in migrants and ethnic minorities throughout the COVID pandemic, while recent evidence also suggests higher risk of longer-term consequences. We discovered that disease severity, i. The greater exposure and impact of the COVID virus among migrants also affected longer-term consequences.
The findings emphasize the need for targeted health interventions for migrant communities during an infectious disease pandemic, such as strategic vaccination campaigns and extending social insurance schemes, focusing on reducing disease severity to mitigate the longer-term health consequences of an infection. Peer Review reports. Although the pandemic has reached an end, the lingering consequences of COVID infection continues to impact millions of people worldwide [ 2 ].
Long COVID is broadly defined as signs, symptoms, and conditions that continue or develop after acute COVID infection, which include fatigue, persistent cough, cognitive dysfunction, shortness of breath, depression, anxiety, among others. It is a multi-symptomatic disease, which have been found to cluster by severity [ 4 , 5 ]. It appeared early on during the pandemic that the virus had an unequal impact on various population groups.
A number of studies found higher COVID infection rates, hospitalizations, and deaths in migrants and ethnic minorities throughout the pandemic in many high-income countries [ 6 , 7 ] including Sweden [ 8 , 9 ].
When considering that migrants and ethnic minorities were particularly affected by SARS-COV-2, they might also experience a higher risk of longer-term health complications of their infection and disease. Although empirical evidence is still scarce, some studies indicate a higher incidence of diagnosed long COVID in migrants and ethnic minorities in high-income countries such as Denmark [ 10 ], the Netherlands [ 11 ], and the USA [ 12 ], with mixed findings from the UK [ 13 , 14 ].
