Number of long Covid sufferers across UK reaches 1.3 million

Symptoms include fatigue, loss of smell and difficulty concentrating

A man walks past NHS signage near a Covid vaccine centre in Preston on Thursday (Getty)

Well over a million people in the UK are suffering from long Covid – the highest number since estimates began – with symptoms including fatigue, loss of smell and difficulty concentrating.

Data released by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) suggests around 1.3 million people in the UK (2 per cent of the population, or one in 50) continues to be affected by the condition after becoming infected with coronavirus.

The figure includes more than half a million people who first had the virus, or suspected they had it, at least a year ago, suggesting long Covid can last many months and remains unresolved in people who were infected in 2020.

Estimates of 1.3 million sufferers are an increase on the 1.2 million believed to have long Covid in October, and up on the 945,000 at the start of July.

Symptoms adversely affected the day-to-day activities of 809,000 people (64 per cent of those with self-reported long Covid), with 247,000 (20 per cent) reporting that their ability to undertake their day-to-day activities had been “limited a lot”.

Fatigue continues to be the most common symptom of long Covid (51 per cent of those reported this), followed by loss of smell (37 per cent), shortness of breath (36 per cent), and difficulty concentrating (28 per cent).

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 health care, social care, or teaching and education (which saw the biggest month-on-month increase out of all employment sectors), and those with another health condition or disability, the ONS said.

Among age groups the biggest jumps were for children aged 12 to 16, where prevalence rose month-on-month from 1.4 per cent to 1.9 per cent, and for 35 to 49-year-olds, up from 2.6 per cent to 2.8 per cent.

Self-reported long Covid is defined as symptoms persisting for more than four weeks after the first suspected coronavirus infection which could not be explained by something else.

The ONS analysis was based on 351,850 responses to their Coronavirus (Covid-19) Infection Survey, collected over the four-week period to 6 December.