Long Covid: Record 2million Brits are estimated to have Long Covid, official survey finds

Nearly 2million Britons claim they have long Covid, official data showed today.

An Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey found one in 32 people in the UK said they were still experiencing symptoms at least four weeks after infection.

The figure, which covers up to May 1, is up 10 per cent on the nearly 1.8million who self-reported the condition a month ago.

The estimates are based on a survey of around 363,000 people across the UK, and their answers were not necessarily confirmed by a diagnosis. 

Experts have previously cast doubt over the ONS’s long Covid findings, with some saying they are likely to be an overestimation given symptoms like headaches and fatigue can be linked to a variety of conditions. 

But despite uncertainty around the data, MPs today described the record number as a ‘grim milestone’.

Fatigue was the most common symptom, affecting 55 per cent. 

A third said they were short of breath and more than a fifth had continued coughs and muscle aches.

Statisticians also estimated 826,000 were still suffering from long Covid a year after catching the virus — the highest figure to date. 

An Office for National Statistics (ONS) survey found 2million in the UK said they were still experiencing symptoms at least four weeks after infection as of May 1. The figure was up 10 per cent on the nearly 1.8million who self-reported the condition in the month up to April 3

Separate ONS data showed Covid antibody levels have now reached record levels across the UK, with booster jabs continuing to sustain people’s immunity

Around 1.4million people said they were still experiencing symptoms three months after they were infected.

The figure was up 8 per cent on the 1.3million in the group on April 3. 

Estimates for long Covid in the UK have risen sharply in recent months, climbing from 1.3 million at the start of the year to reach 1.5 million by the end of January and 1.8 million in early April.

The increase is likely to reflect the impact of the Omicron variant of the virus, which saw record levels of infection across the country in the spring.

Of the 2million people with self-reported long Covid, 619,000 – nearly a third – first had the virus during the Omicron period.

The first Omicron wave began in the UK in December 2021 and was followed in March 2022 by another surge of infections driven by the BA.2 subvariant.

In contrast, 593,000 people with self-reported long Covid said they first had the virus in the early period of the pandemic before Alpha became the main variant in late 2020.

Around 1.2million said long Covid was badly affecting their day-to-day activities, while 346,000 said their lives were ‘limited a lot’. 

The condition was most commonly reported in people aged 35 to 69, women, people living in deprived areas and those in frontline jobs.

Campaigners said the figures showed the ‘scale and dangers of the Long Covid crisis’.

Liberal Democrat MP Layla Moran, chair of the all party parliamentary group on coronavirus, urged the Government to stop burying ‘their heads in the sand’.

She 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.’

The latest ONS figures show there continues to be higher prevalence of long Covid among people working in frontline public sector jobs.

Around 5.4 per cent per cent of social care workers said they were experiencing long Covid, the highest proportion for any occupation.

They were followed by people in teaching and education (4.6 per cent), health care (4.6 per cent) and the civil service or local government (4.1 per cent).

Some one in 40 (2.5 per cent) of social care workers said they been suffering long Covid since first having the virus at least 12 months ago.

Symptoms ranged from fatigue to loss of smell and taste, as well as shortness of breath

Experts called for more to be done to educate the public about the risks of long Covid.

Professor Amitava Banerjee, a clinical data scientist at University College London, said: ‘We know that the only way to prevent it is to prevent getting infected.

‘We’ve put all of our eggs in the vaccination basket, and the latest analysis, including by ONS, show that although vaccinated people are much less likely to get long Covid than those without vaccination, they still get can get infected, and they still can get long Covid.

‘So this idea that there’s nothing to worry about with high levels of Covid in the population, I think, is misguided.’

Long Covid is defined as having lingering symptoms of the virus for more than a month after infection. 

It is a poorly understood condition with sufferers normally reporting extreme tiredness, breathing difficulties, a loss of smell, and problems concentrating. 

But it has been linked to an array of other symptoms like joint pain, nausea, insomnia and depression.

The figures come after separate ONS data showed Covid antibody levels are still at record levels across the UK.

Some 99.4 per cent of adults in England and Scotland tested positive for the virus-fighting proteins as of April 3, while 99.3 per cent in Wales and Northern Ireland did.

In Great Britain, 95.5 per cent of children aged 12 to 15 and 94.6 per cent of children aged eight to 11 have Covid antibodies.

More than 99 per cent of people aged 16 and over have tested positive for the proteins every week since the start of January. 

The high levels are a sign of the continued effects of Britain’s booster programme as well as some of the protection afforded by natural infection.

Antibodies are part of the body’s defence against viruses, indicating levels of immunity to disease.