COVID-19 infection appears to significantly increase the risk of heart and thromboembolic disease for at least a year after recovery, even if patients did not end up in hospital, researchers warn. 

A US veterans’ database study shows raised rates for a broad range of cardiac disorders among former COVID-19 patients compared with people who escaped the virus. 

Researchers followed 153,750 veterans who survived the first 30 days of COVID-19 and two control groups — 5.6 million people who never developed the illness during the pandemic and a ‘historical’ group of 5.8 million sourced from before the pandemic. 

The team found that people who survived COVID-19 had an increased relative risk of dysrhythmias (69% increased risk), ischaemic heart disease (66%), heart failure (72%), and double the risk of myocarditis and pericarditis, compared with the control groups.