The amount of research on qigong for COVID-19 is extremely limited. One 2021 review looking at the role of traditional Chinese medicine in COVID-19 indicated that qigong has not been well investigated as a treatment for COVID-19 and that there is a lack of high-quality evidence from well-designed randomized controlled trials.
Another 2021 review looking at complementary therapies and COVID-19 listed only two very small studies on qigong, totaling 49 participants. The studies suggested that qigong improved physical activity, perceptions of difficult breathing, quality of life, and some measures of inflammation in the body, but the studies were not randomized controlled trials.
The 2021 reviews did not include a small 2021 randomized controlled trial of 128 participants hospitalized with severe COVID-19 in China. This study found that adding a rehabilitation program of acupressure therapy and qigong exercise to standard care shortened hospital stays and improved lung function and symptoms such as shortness of breath and cough. Data were collected only while participants were in the hospital, which averaged 20.8 days for participants receiving standard care and 18.5 days for participants receiving the added rehabilitation program.
A 2020 review indicated that there are few studies on the effects of qigong on the acute phase of respiratory infections in general.