Persistence of coronavirus in the cardiac tissue in patients following recovery from COVID-19

It is well known that coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) patients present with symptoms involving multiple organs, in addition to its original manifestation of respiratory symptoms. Studies have reported that the coronavirus affects extrapulmonary organs including cardiovascular system (1-5). The cardiac injury associated with COVID-19 includes development of acute myocardial injury, cardiac arrhythmia and other cardiac complications which worsen the prognosis (6-8). Early reports during the pandemic outbreak in 2020 showed that about 12% of COVID-19 patients suffered from acute heart injuries (9), and 5–25% of hospitalised COVID-19 patients had elevations in cardiac troponin which is a biomarker of myocardial injury (9-11). While acute cardiac injury is well recognised and reported in the literature with clear definition, chronic cardiovascular damage associated with COVID-19 patients remains uncertain due to variable clinical manifestations in long-COVID patients.