A third of people hospitalized with COVID-19 have "abnormalities" in multiple organs months after getting infected, a U.K. study said Saturday, potentially shedding light on the elusive condition of long COVID.

Millions worldwide are estimated to suffer from long COVID, in which a range of symptoms such as shortness of breath, fatigue and brain fog last long after patients first contracted the virus.

Yet much about the condition, including exactly how COVID causes such a wide range of symptoms, remains unknown.