Around 1.3 million people in the UK – one in 50 – are likely to be suffering from long Covid, the highest number since estimates began.
This includes more than half a million people who first had Covid-19, or suspected they had the virus, at least one year ago.
The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), are based on self-reported long Covid from a representative sample of people in private households.
Responses were collected in the four weeks to December 6 – before the recent surge in coronavirus infections driven by the Omicron variant.
The estimate of 1.3 million people with long Covid is up from 1.2 million at the end of October and 945,000 at the start of July.
Of the 1.3 million, 892,000 people (70%) first had – or suspected they had – Covid-19 at least 12 weeks previously, while 506,000 (40%) first had the virus at least a year earlier.
Long Covid is estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 809,000 people – nearly two-thirds of those with self-reported long Covid – with 247,000 saying their ability to undertake day-to-day activities has been “limited a lot”, the ONS found.
Fatigue continues to be the most common symptom (experienced by 51% of those with self-reported long Covid), followed by loss of smell (37%), shortness of breath (36%) and difficulty concentrating (28%).
