UK long Covid cases hit record high of 2 million

The number of people suspected to be living with long Covid has risen to a record high of two million, new figures show.

Estimates from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggest that, as of 1 May, around 3.1 per cent of the population were suffering from persistent symptoms after becoming infected with coronavirus.

This includes 826,000 who have had long Covid for at least one year – up from 791,000 in April. Some 376,000 people have meanwhile lived with the condition for at least two years, the figures show.

The prevalence of long Covid in the UK has jumped sharply since the end of the Omicron wave, which infected millions of people over winter. Since the beginning of the year, 700,000 people have developed the condition – more than one-third of the overall total.

Up to 1 May, lingering symptoms adversely affected the everyday life of 1.4 million people, the ONS said, with 398,000 reporting that their ability to undertake normal activities had been “limited a lot”.

The ONS said that its estimates were based on self-reported long Covid among study participants, rather than clinical diagnoses.

Long Covid was found to be most prevalent in people aged 35 to 69 years, women, people living in more deprived areas, those working in healthcare, social care, or teaching and education, and those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability, the ONS said.

Fatigue continues to be the most common symptom of long Covid (55 per cent of cases reported this), followed by shortness of breath (32 per cent), a cough (23 per cent), and muscle ache (23 per cent).

The ONS analysis was based on 296,868 responses to its Coronavirus Infection Survey collected over the four-week period ending 1 May 2022.

Despite the mounting threat posed by the condition, with research under way to better understand how it develops and who is vulnerable, efforts to treat patients are stalling.

The NHS has established a network of long Covid clinics but the latest data shows that, between 14 March and 10 April, only 5,818 patients in England received “specialist assessments” at these centres.

Responding to new ONS figures, Layla Moran MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus, said: “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.

“After reaching this grim milestone, the government cannot bury their heads in the sand any longer. They must urgently classify long Covid as an occupational illness, provide formal guidance to employers and increase funding for research into treatments.”