Two million people in UK living with long Covid, say studies

Two million people in the UK are thought to be living with long Covid, the highest figure since official surveys began.

While Covid can cause an acute period of illness, some people still experience symptoms, such as breathlessness, for months or even years.

Studies suggest that Covid may have a long-term impact, including through damage to organs such as the heart and lungs, while research suggests that fewer than a third of patients who are hospitalized with the disease feel fully recovered a year later.

Two million people living in private households in the UK were still experiencing Covid symptoms more than four weeks after their last visit, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics.

About two in five of those with long Covid, or 817,000 people, said that it was at least a year ago, while one in five, or 376,000 people, said it was at least two years ago. More than 70% of those with long Covid said their symptoms had a negative impact on their day-to-day activities, with 20% saying their ability to undertake such activities had been limited.

The latest figure is a 10% rise on the number of people with long Covid reported last month, and is almost twice as high as the figure reported as of 2 May last year.

The prevalence of long Covid was highest in people aged 35 to 69 years, females, those working in social care, teaching and education or health care, and those with another.

The latest figures are alarming according to Prof Danny Altmann, an expert on long Covid at Imperial College London.

They put to rest any hope that long Covid would be just a thing of the early waves, or that it would diminish in times of vaccination.

We have now created a much larger cohort of the chronically unwell and disabled than we had before, and this has a negative effect on the quality of life and the workplace. This could not be further from living with Covid. It requires policy discussions nationally and internationally.

The government was criticized by the all party parliamentary group on coronaviruses.

For nearly two years we have been warning the UK government about the scale and dangers of the long Covid crisis and their failure to properly address it will continue to devastate lives, damage our economy and cripple public services by decreasing productivity and increasing labour shortages.

The government can't bury their heads in the sand anymore after reaching this grim milestone. They need to classify long Covid as an occupational illness, give formal guidance to employers, and increase funding for research into treatments.