Over a million people could have had ‘long Covid’ in February
As per a recent survey from the Office of National Statistics (ONS), approximately 1.1 million people had coronavirus symptoms in the month following the 6th of February.
The survey suggests that as many as one in five people suffer from long Covid symptoms five weeks after initial infection, and one in seven after 12 weeks. The survey was carried out by participants themselves and asked them to report any symptoms lasting more than four weeks, such as fatigue, headaches, coughs, muscle pain etc.
Symptoms had to have lasted at least four weeks after a confirmed Covid infection and unrelated to any other illness to the best of their knowledge. The most common ongoing problems included fatigue, coughs, headaches and muscle pain.
These results also suggested a decrease in positive tests among people aged 50-69, though this age group is one of the latest to have been targeted for vaccines. Approximate 30 million have been vaccinated in the UK so far and it was recently reported that there had been zero Covid deaths in London for six months.
Long Covid symptoms overlap with most of the common signs of an initial infection, with health and social care workers being one of the most prevalent groups among those affected.
Of those who had tested positive, “422,000 (60.6%) said they experienced at least some limitation to their day-to-day activities” in the 12 weeks following. It always worth checking your own condition and consulting NHS resources to see if you may be suffering from long Covid.
