When Gloria Gardiner tested positive for COVID-19 early in the year she was out for "three intense weeks". She struggled to move around her house and do basic tasks.
"I had no energy, I have an upstairs and downstairs in my houses and I was literally sleeping on my lounge for a good week and a half. I didn't have the energy to go upstairs to have a shower even," she said.
But Ms Gardiner's horror experience with COVID-19 has extended far beyond those three weeks.
More than three months later, Ms Gardiner has a piercing cough, she becomes breathless quite quickly and still struggles with her sense of taste.
"I love my coffee and now I can't drink a coffee without having a mocha or something like that," she said.
"Certain foods I used to enjoy I just don't anymore because I have lost my taste. There was a whole period there where I just couldn't taste anything."
Ms Gardiner, 57, was very active prior to being infected with COVID. She was a keen mountain bike rider and used to be a representative touch football player for the ACT.
She said she had to stop reading social media posts as she would get incredibly frustrated when people would dismiss the seriousness of COVID-19, brushing it off as a mild illness.
Ms Gardiner has sought treatment for her long COVID at a new speciality rehabilitation clinic at the University of Canberra Hospital.
The clinic is staffed by a range of health professionals, including a rehabilitation medicine specialist, physiotherapist, occupational therapist, exercise physiologist and social worker.
The clinic is for patients who had their COVID infection at least three months ago and are still experiencing complications from the virus.
University of Canberra specialist in rehabilitation medicine Philip Gaughwin said there had been two clinics at the hospital so far and that five patients had attended those.
Canberra's COVID cases started to increase rapidly in late-December and January, meaning more patients are expected to attend the clinic in the coming months.
Dr Gaughwin said many post-COVID complications were managed by general practitioners but sometimes there were patients who had a severe illness or underlying comorbidities and need extra support.
Dr Gaughwin said interstate and international experience suggested long COVID had been experienced in between 5 to 10 per cent of patients but he said the data was difficult to interpret because the studies often only looked at patients who had been hospitalised.
But Dr Gaughwin said Canberra's high vaccination rate may mean there could be a lower percentage in the territory.
"We're in a fortunate position that our big spike in COVID cases occurred after 98 per cent of our population was vaccinated, received two doses of a vaccination and we do have evidence that having been immunised against COVID-19 can ameliorate some of those features of long COVID," he said.
Health Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith said that Canberra Health Services would also partner with the University of Canberra on a research project into long COVID care at the clinic.
"This clinic will also undertake research with team members from the University of Canberra and Canberra Health Services investigating care for long COVID ... what we learn from this research through the clinic will contribute to further innovations in the public health system into the future," Ms Stephen-Smith said.
