600,000 with long Covid for two years

Nearly 600,000 people in the UK with long Covid are likely to have first had the virus at least two years ago, figures suggest.

A total of 2.2 million people across the country are currently estimated to be suffering from long Covid, or 3.4 per cent of the population.

This includes 594,000 who first had Covid-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least 24 months previously.

The figures have been published by the Office for National Statistics and are based on self-reported long Covid from a representative sample of people in private households in the four weeks to November 6.

They show the overall number of people with long Covid is broadly unchanged since the previous survey for the period up to October 1, when the estimated total was 2.1 million.

But the number estimated to have had long Covid for at least two years has climbed from 507,000 to 594,000.