Are persistent infections of novel coronavirus the cause of sequelae in infected hosts?

A research team, comprised of Associate Professor Tomonari Sumi of the Research Institute for Interdisciplinary Science at Okayama University and Associate Professor Kouji Harada of the Center for IT-based Education (CITE) at Toyohashi University of Technology, has developed a mathematical model of the immune response within infected hosts that considers systemic infection of a novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2), and demonstrated by conducting experimental computer simulations that persistent viral infections within hosts potentially cause long COVID or post-acute sequelae of COVID-19.

source https://medicalxpress.com/news/2022-08-persistent-infections-coronavirus-sequelae-infected.html