England Health Secretary Matt Hancock said he is “very worried” about the impact of long Covid, after figures from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) showed almost one in seven people who test positive for Covid-19 are still suffering symptoms three months later.
He said the Government is investing more in tackling and understanding the condition.
He told Sky News: “We can see the impact in these new statistics shown today and I understand the impact it has had on hundreds of thousands of people.
“It’s one of the many damaging problems of this virus.
“We’re putting more research money into tackling and understanding long Covid because it appears to be several different syndromes.
“This is a very strange, very dangerous virus and it’s yet another reason for everybody to be cautious.
“Enjoy the sunshine, by all means, but nobody is safe from this virus until we can make everybody safe.”
An estimated 1.1 million people in private households in the UK reported experiencing “long Covid” in the four weeks to March 6, according to the ONS.
Of these people, an estimated 697,000 first had Covid-19 – or suspected they had Covid-19 – at least 12 weeks previously while 70,000 first had the virus or suspected they had the virus at least one year ago.
Long Covid was estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 674,000 people, with 196,000 reporting that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.
Prevalence rates of self-reported long Covid were greatest in people aged 35 to 69 years, females, those living in the most deprived areas, those working in health or social care and those with a pre-existing, activity-limiting health condition, the ONS found.
However, it is not possible to say whether these patterns are because of differences in the risk of coronavirus infection or susceptibility to experiencing long Covid following infection.
The ONS defines long Covid as symptoms persisting more than four weeks after the first suspected episode of Covid-19 and which are not explained by something else.
