Estimated 2 million have long Covid in UK: official data

• An estimated two million people in the United Kingdom, have reported Covid.
• The country of around 67 million people has recorded nearly 18.8 million cases
• 178,000 deaths from the virus since it hit more than two years ago.

An estimated two million people in the United Kingdom, or approximately three percent of the population, have reported experiencing so-called long Covid Official statistics were released Wednesday.

According to the Office for National Statistics, approximately 1.4 million of them first had Covid-19 or suspected they had the virus at least 12 weeks prior (ONS).

It was also discovered that 826,000 of them had coronavirus for the first time at least a year before, while 376,000 had it for the first time at least two years before.

The ONS figures are based on people’s own reports of suffering from long Covid from a representative sample of private households in the four weeks to May 1.

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Fatigue is the most common symptom — experienced by 55 percent of those with self-reported long Covid — followed by shortness of breath (32 percent), a cough (23 percent), and muscle ache (23 percent).

According to the ONS, the largest proportions were people aged 35 to 69, females, those living in more deprived areas, and those working in specific professions such as social care, teaching, education, or health care.

Those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability were also more prevalent among the long Covid sufferers, it added.

The UK, which was one of the worst impacted countries by the pandemic, has eased all restrictions this year as cases and hospital admissions have fallen amid relatively high vaccination rates.

The country of around 67 million people has recorded nearly 18.8 million cases, and almost 178,000 deaths from the virus since it hit more than two years ago.

The ONS assessment found nearly a third of the two million people reporting long-lasting symptoms first had Covid or suspected they had it, during the Omicron wave which began late last year.

Its findings follow another UK study published in April that found that only about a quarter of people had recovered completely from Covid a year after being hospitalized with the disease.

The National Institute for Health and Care Research study, which included over 2,300 people, also discovered that women were 33% less likely than men to fully recover.

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