Record number of people in UK with long Covid, survey suggests

The number of people in the UK suffering from long Covid has climbed to a new record high, figures suggest.

An estimated 1.33 million people – around one in 48 – are likely to be experiencing symptoms of long Covid, including more than half a million who first had Covid-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least one year ago.

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are based on self-reported long Covid from a representative sample of people in private households in the four weeks to January 2.

Self-reported long Covid is defined as symptoms persisting for more than four weeks after a first suspected coronavirus infection that could not be explained by something else.

The latest estimate of 1.33 million people with long Covid is up from 1.27 million at the start of December and 945,000 in early July.

Of the 1.33 million, 947,000 people (71%) first had – or suspected they had – Covid-19 at least 12 weeks previously, while 554,000 (42%) first had the virus at least a year earlier.

Long Covid is estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 836,000 people – nearly two thirds of those with self-reported long Covid – with 244,000 saying their ability to undertake day-to-day activities has been “limited a lot”, the ONS found.

Fatigue continues to be the most common symptom (experienced by 50% of those with self-reported long Covid), followed by shortness of breath (37%), loss of smell (37%) and loss of taste (28%).

Prevalence was highest for people aged 35 to 49 (2.8%) and 50 to 69 (2.6%).

Among professions, people working in social care had the highest prevalence (3.4%), followed by teaching and education (3.1%) and healthcare (3.0%).