text: What is the recovery rate and risk of long term consequences following a diagnosis of COVID 19 A harmonised global longitudinal observational study protocol Very little is known about possible clinical sequelae that may persist after resolution of acute COVID 19 A recent longitudinal cohort from Italy including 143 patients followed up after hospitalisation with COVID 19 reported that 87 had at least one ongoing symptom at 60 day follow up Early indications suggest that patients with COVID 19 may need even more psychological support than typical intensive care unit patients The assessment of risk factors for longer term consequences requires a longitudinal study linked to data on pre existing conditions and care received during the acute phase of illness The primary aim of this study is to characterise physical and psychosocial sequelae in patients post COVID 19 hospital discharge This is an international open access prospective observational multisite study This protocol is linked with the International Severe Acute Respiratory and emerging Infection Consortium ISARIC and the WHOs Clinical Characterisation Protocol which includes patients with suspected or confirmed COVID 19 during hospitalisation This protocol will follow up a subset of patients with confirmed COVID 19 using standardised surveys to measure longer term physical and psychosocial sequelae The data will be linked with the acute phase data Statistical analyses will be undertaken to characterise groups most likely to be affected by sequelae of COVID 19 The open access follow up survey can be used as a data collection tool by other follow up studies to facilitate data harmonisation and to identify subsets of patients for further in depth follow up The outcomes of this study will inform strategies to prevent long term consequences inform clinical management interventional studies rehabilitation and public health management to reduce overall morbidity and improve long term outcomes of COVID 19 The protocol and survey are open access to enable low resourced sites to join the study to facilitate global standardised longitudinal data collection Ethical approval has been given by sites in Colombia Ghana Italy Norway Russia the UK and South Africa New sites are welcome to join this collaborative study at any time Sites interested in adopting the protocol as it is or in an adapted version are responsible for ensuring that local sponsorship and ethical approvals in place as appropriate The tools are available on the ISARIC website www isaric org PROTOCOL REGISTRATION NUMBER osf io c5rw3 PROTOCOL VERSION 3 August 2020 EUROQOL ID 37035 