In the Spanish National Health System, there is a general lack of agreement on what persistent COVID actually is and how its severity and predisposing profiles should be evaluated. This represents a major obstacle to the process of diagnosing this health problem and to the identification of profiles of high-risk patients with particular healthcare needs. It also complicates the definition of follow-up strategies, appropriate coding in information systems, and the implementation of interventions that apply a comprehensive, multidisciplinary approach. Consequently, there is a clear need for a better understanding of what persistent COVID really is. In this first stage, the CIBERPOSTCOVID project proposes an operational definition of persistent COVID and its key elements.
