More than three-quarters of a million people in the UK say they have experienced long Covid that has lasted for at least a year, new figures show.
The UK Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimates 1.7 million people were likely to be experiencing symptoms of long Covid in the four weeks to March 5th, the equivalent of 2.7 per cent of the population.
This is up 13 per cent from 1.5 million people a month earlier, and includes 784,000 people who first had Covid-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least one year ago – the highest number so far.
An estimated 1.7 million people living in private households in the UK (2.7% of the population) were experiencing self-reported long COVID as of 5 March 2022 https://t.co/glXxQn7nMj pic.twitter.com/FwHsWtvN5f
— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 7, 2022
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The new data, published on Thursday, also shows long Covid symptoms are estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 1.1 million people, around two-thirds of those with self-reported long Covid.
Some 322,000 people (19 per cent) reported their ability to undertake day-to-day activities has been “limited a lot”, the ONS said.
Fatigue continues to be the most common symptom (experienced by 51 per cent of those with self-reported long Covid), followed by shortness of breath (34 per cent), loss of smell (28 per cent) and then muscle ache (24 per cent).
Of the 1.7 million, 1.2 million (69 per cent) first had coronavirus – or suspected they had it – at least 12 weeks previously, while 784,000 (45 per cent) first had Covid at least a year earlier, and 74,000 (4 per cent) at least two years ago.
Fatigue (51%) continued to be the most common symptom of self-reported Long Covid.
This was followed by
▪️shortness of breath (34%)
▪️loss of smell (28%)
▪️and muscle ache (24%).Advertisement— Office for National Statistics (ONS) (@ONS) April 7, 2022
The ONS said prevalence of self-reported long Covid was greatest in people aged 35 to 49, females, people living in more deprived areas, those working in social care, teaching and education or health care, and those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability.
The ONS figures are based on self-reported long Covid from a representative sample of people in private households in the four weeks to March 5th.
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.
