Long COVID: 2.3 million people affected in the UK

Content originally from Office for National Statistics

An estimated 2.3 million people in private households in the UK (3.5% of the population) were experiencing self-reported long COVID as of 3 September 2022.

Of those, almost half (46%) reported experiencing long COVID symptoms at least one year after first having (suspected) COVID-19.

The most common long COVID symptoms continued to be fatigue (69% of those with self-reported long COVID), followed by difficulty concentrating (45%), shortness of breath (42%) and muscle ache (40%).

Symptoms adversely affected the day-to-day activities of 1.6 million people, or 72% of those with self-reported long COVID. 

We also reported that the percentage of people testing positive for COVID-19 continued to increase in England, increased in Northern Ireland and trends were uncertain in Wales and Scotland in the latest week.

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