WHO official says the more times a person gets COVID-19, the more likely they are to be 'unlucky' and get long COVID

• A World Health Organization official said he's worried about people contracting long COVID.
• David Nabarro said the more times people get COVID-19, the more likely they are to be "unlucky."

A World Health Organization official said on Monday that the more times a person becomes infected with COVID-19, the more likely the person is to be "unlucky" and contract long-term health effects from the coronavirus.

"The more times you get it, the more likely you are to be unlucky and end up with long COVID — which is the thing that none of us want because it can be so serious," David Nabarro, a WHO special envoy for COVID-19, told Sky News.

He continued: "It can knock people off their stride for several months."

Long COVID happens when someone with COVID-19 develops symptoms that linger for an extended period, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The CDC says symptoms could last weeks or months, and even go and come back.

According to the CDC, people are most likely to experience long COVID if they had a more serious initial infection, have underlying health issues, are unvaccinated, or experienced multisystem inflammatory syndrome during or after the illness.

In the US, the seven-day average of new COVID-19 cases recorded each day has hovered at about 100,000 for over a month, according to the latest data from the CDC.

The figures began to plateau in late May after an upswing from nearly 25,000 a day in March.