The Importance of Rehabilitation for COVID-19 Sequelae

The COVID-19 pandemic was declared at the beginning of 2020. The healthcare workforce has centered their efforts in treating the acute effects of the disease, trying to salvage as much lives as possible. This has placed a huge burden over healthcare human and economic resources. Over a year later, it is becoming clearer that the sequelae of the disease might turn into its own kind of overwhelming disability burden. Respiratory, neurologic, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and musculoskeletal symptoms are present in approximately 87 % of patients that presented even mild symptoms; a severe disease is a high-risk predictor for these long-term consequences. A rehabilitation program to recover these patients is going to become a relevant as the pandemic acute stage starts to fade. The rapid development of new technologies and interventions based on biological signals evaluations and monitoring must come fast, to meet the rehabilitation demand that is already here. In Mexico with almost 2 million positive cases and 1.5 million recovered patients by February 10th, 2021, about 1.3 million people (80 %) might need some level of rehabilitation to be able to reincorporate to the work force and to return to being productive, for their families and their communities.