Elderly COVID Patients Complain of Lethargy, Forgetfulness

People over 65 who have been infected with coronavirus often suffer from forgetfulness and lethargy, even if they do not have the usual symptoms of shortness of breath, fever and a dry cough.

A study in the Journals of Gerontology analyzed the medical records of 4,961 elderly patients who were hospitalized in March and April last year and found that a quarter suffered from lethargy, weakness and difficulty getting out of bed and were prone to fall, while 11.2 percent suffered from confusion and forgetfulness.

Only half of the patients with these symptoms also had general COVID-19 symptoms.

The older patients were, the more common the unusual symptoms became, occurring in 30.8 percent of patients aged 75 to 84 and 44.2 percent of patients over 85. Researchers said the fatality rate among patients with unusual symptoms was 30 percent.