**6. Consequences of neglecting the mental health impact of post-COVID fatigue**

There is an overall decline in the quality of life of individuals as a result of a neglect of the mental health component of post-COVID 19 fatigue [36]. Commonly, the public health strategies focused on controlling the spread of and reducing the acute symptoms accompanying the virus [37]. These strategies have ranged from proper pharmacological management to the dissemination of COVID-19 vaccines [38]. However, as studies begin to report the symptoms of post-COVID-19 fatigue, the mental health impact is repeatedly highlighted [39, 40]. More often, post-COVID-19 fatigue and mental health effects such as sleep disorders, anxiety and depression, and post-traumatic stress disorders are co-occurring and sometimes associated with physical components [39, 40]. Therefore, when mental health becomes repeatedly overlooked, the overall quality of life of the individuals declines [36, 41]. For example, the mental health disorder may aggravate the physical component of fatigue, resulting in muscle weakness and reduction in cognition. This neglect can also have a disproportionate impact on other mental health consequences such as suicide [42]. In the United States of America, during the 2 months of lockdown, more suicides caused by mental health disorders were recorded than COVID-19 deaths. Likewise, poor coping mechanisms such as drug and alcohol abuse can be taken up to alleviate the mental health effects [43]. With these debilitating consequences, it is important that strategies are put in place to alleviate them.
