Covid 19 coronavirus: 'Damaging' long Covid now affecting one million people in UK

Patients with Long Covid still suffer lack of smell, taste and feel fatigued, six months on. Photo / File

More than one million people in the UK are living with long Covid, the first national survey of the phenomenon by the Office for National Statistics found.

UK Secretary of State for Health Matt Hancock said this week he was "very worried" about the impact, with almost one in seven people who test positive for the virus still suffering symptoms three months later.

Britain's Health Secretary Matt Hancock says he's "very worried" about the impact, with almost one in seven people who test positive for the virus still suffering symptoms. Photo / AP

An estimated 697,000 first had Covid-19, or suspected they had it, at least 12 weeks previously, while 70,000 first had or suspected they had the virus or suspected 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.

Of those self-reporting long Covid, those aged 35-69 were most affected, as were women, people living in the most deprived areas, those working in health or social care and those with a pre-existing condition. Health and social care workers experienced the highest rates of self-reported long Covid among employment groups (3.6 and 3.1 per cent respectively) followed by those working in personal services (2.8 per cent), civil service or local government (2.7 per cent) and education (2.5 per cent).

The largest study of its kind on long Covid, it found people with coronavirus are significantly more likely to report muscle pain and fatigue. Among a sample of more than 20,000 people who tested positive for Covid-19 between April last year and March this year, 13.7 per cent continued to experience symptoms for at least 12 weeks.

Hancock told Sky News: "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."

Layla Moran, the Liberal Democrat chairman of the all-party parliamentary group on coronavirus, said: "For too long, long Covid patients have felt like the forgotten victims of this pandemic."