Almost one million Brits plagued by long Covid – as cases in kids rise

ALMOST one million Brits are being plagued by long Covid, and cases are rising in children.

Long Covid is when people catch the coronavirus and instead of fully recovering, they suffer symptoms for weeks, potentially months, more.

The Office for National Statistics published data today revealing an estimated 970,000 people in the UK were experiencing long Covid on August 1, up from 945,000 a month prior.

This was defined as self-reported persistent symptoms of four weeks since coronavirus sickness.

A predicted 38,000 children in the UK aged from two to 16 had long Covid in the same period - up from 34,000 a month prior.

Experts have been warning that, although children do not tend to have severe Covid illness, they can get long Covid. 

And with infections growing in youngsters, this is only set to increase further.

Schools reopening in Scotland has coincided with a huge surge in case numbers, and the same is expected for England.

There is still no decision on whether to give vaccines to 12 to 15 year olds, despite ministers saying one was imminent for weeks.

Meanwhile, experts estimate almost 1,000 people a day are getting long Covid, defined as symptoms for longer than 12 weeks.

The ZOE Covid Symptom Study app, which tracks the outbreak, says as long as daily new cases rise, so will the numbers of long haulers.

Kevin McConway, emeritus professor of applied statistics, The Open University, said it's "quite depressing" there have been no signs of improvement for months.

He commented: "Last month I said that the [ONS] numbers 'continue to be alarmingly high', and I think that’s still true.

"The central estimate of 970,000 is certainly a very high number, amounting to around one in 65 of the whole community population... and more than the population of every town and city in the UK except London and Birmingham."

Long Covid uncommon in kids, but rising

A separate study this week suggested as many as one in seven children who get coronavirus could have symptoms four months later.

Those who tested positive were twice as likely to report symptoms than those who tested negative, researchers led by University College London and Public Health England found.

Lead author Professor Sir Terence Stephenson said the data was “nowhere near what people thought in the worst-case scenario”.

But he added: "There will be some young people who are completely bedridden or remain very short of breath or have daily headaches, and I wouldn’t want to diminish that."

Other studies have shown that very few kids get long Covid - as little as two per cent have symptoms lasting eight weeks, according to a King’s College London study.

However, that still amounts to potentially hundreds of thousands if case numbers are high in children.

Currently the ONS predicts one in 38 people from school year 12 to age 24 have Covid. The figure is one in 40 in year 7s to year 11s, and one in 52 for year 6 and under. 

Plagued for a year

Of the 970,000 people with long Covid in the UK, an estimated 384,000 say it had lasted a year.

This is up slightly from 380,000 in a similar survey carried out one month earlier.

Long Covid was estimated to be adversely affecting the day-to-day activities of 643,000 people – around two-thirds.

Fatigue was the most common symptom (58 per cent), followed by shortness of breath (42 per cent), muscle ache (32 per cent) and difficulty concentrating (31 per cent).

Long Covid was most common in women and people; aged 35 to 69 years, living in poor areas, working in health and social care and with a disability.

Commenting on today's stats, Dr Janet Scott, clinical lecturer in infectious diseases, MRC-University of Glasgow Center for Virus Research (CVR), said long Covid may be overestimated because the symptoms were self reported in this study.

She said: “I note that a percentage of patients who are referred to CFS/ME [chronic fatigue syndrome] clinics on investigation turn out to have another diagnosis such as sleep apnea, hypothyroidism and anaemia.

"There has been a lot of discussion around the similarities of CFS/ME and long lasting Covid-19 symptoms so I think it is possible that a percentage of the people in the ONS data may also have another diagnosis."

The new statistics come as research suggested being double-jabbed almost halves the likelihood of long Covid.

Some people will catch the coronavirus, regardless of if they are fully vaccinated, because the jabs are not 100 per cent effective.

Researchers at King’s College London found the risk of long Covid in those who get the disease is 49 per cent lower.