50,000 suffer ‘long Covid’

MORE than 50,000 people in Wales are estimated to be suffering with the long-term effects of coronavirus, a new study has found.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS), which conducted a Covid-19 infection survey over the four-week period ending March 6, revealed that around 56,000 people in Wales had reported experiencing ‘long Covid’.

According to the study, someone is defined as having long Covid when symptoms, including a persistent cough, breathlessness, headaches and fatigue, last for more than four weeks. Other typical side-effects include heart palpitations, gut problems, pins and needles, numbness and “brain fog”.

The study found that prevalence of long Covid was higher for women who participated in the survey (14.7%) than men (12.7%) and was highest among those aged 25 to 34 (18.2%).

Across the UK, the analysis found that an estimated 1.1 million people had long Covid, including 932,000 in England, 79,000 in Scotland and 26,000 in Northern Ireland.

Some 697,000 people had been suffering with side-effects for at least 12 weeks. This duration extended to beyond six months for 473,000 people and one year for 70,000 people.

Ben Humberstone, head of health analysis and life events at the Office for National Statistics, said: “An estimated 674,000 people reported that their symptoms have negatively impacted on their ability to undertake their day-to-day activities. People who tested positive for Covid-19 are around eight times more likely to suffer prolonged symptoms than observed in the general population.”

Perhaps unsurprisingly, health and social care workers experienced the highest prevalence rates of self-reported long Covid (3.6% and 3.1% respectively), while those in the most deprived social group also reported the greatest levels of the longterm form of the condition.