Even healthcare professionals may not be aware and prepared for a condition called Post-ICU Syndrome (PICS) that can occur in the aftermath of COVID-19. What about those who were hospitalized for COVID-19, treated in ICU, and are unaware of the possible long-term impact and rehabilitation phase? There is a tendency to think that once the patient is discharged from the hospital, has tested negative, and looks well, the problem is resolved. However, the struggle of COVID-19 survivors and family members or caregivers may not end there.

PICS is an ongoing challenge that may potentially present as a public health crisis. PICS is a term used to describe the group of impairments faced by ICU survivors. It can persist for months or years. PICS encompasses a combination of physical, neurological, social, and psychological decline (Jaffri & Jaffri, 2020). The physical impairments include intensive care acquired weakness, classified as critical illness myopathy, neuropathy, and neuromyopathy. Cognitive and psychological impairments involve impaired memory, language, delirium, depression, anxiety, and post-traumatic stress disorder (Inoue et al., 2019). Especially in COVID-19 ICU patients, some of these impairments are not just because of critical illness, but the invasion of virus in multiple tissues (Papathanassoglou, Manhas, & Kusi-Appiah, 2020).