1.1m suffering long Covid – months after being infected

MORE than one million people are suffering long-term effects from Covid-19, the first major study of the lingering impact of the virus revealed yesterday.

Nearly one in seven people still have symptoms three months after infection, it found, the majority of those being women.

And the alarming spread of long Covid has left almost two thirds of sufferers with symptoms that have affected their lives. Of those, nearly 200,000 people say their day-to-day activities are now severely restricted.

The study, by the Office for National Statistics, was based on the experiences of 20,000 people who had tested positive for coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic.

The shocking analysis means that long Covid is likely to be a widespread and long-lasting phenomenon which may damage many lives. It also threatens to lay a lasting burden on the NHS,

‘Lasting burden on the NHS’

which has already spent £10million on specialist long Covid clinics in England.

Some 1.1million people have been affected by long Covid, according to ONS estimates – nearly four times the 301,000 thought to have been affected in estimates last year.

It found that the most common symptoms still present five weeks after infection were fatigue, coughs, headaches and muscle pain.

And those most likely to develop long Covid symptoms included those aged between 35 and 69, people living in deprived areas, and health and social care workers.

People with underlying health conditions were also at risk.

But the ONS warned its findings were based on self-reported symptoms not clinical assessments.