Thread by @DrZoeHyde

The latest data from the UK’s Office for National Statistics show that over 1 million people in Great Britain are estimated to be living with long COVID.

Nearly 400 thousand of these have been living with long COVID for at least one year.

A thread. 🧵
ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulati…

The most common symptoms reported by people living with long COVID were fatigue, shortness of breath, muscle pain, and difficulty concentrating.

However, it is possible that some of these symptoms could be attributable to a cause other than long COVID in at least some people.

Of the people living with long COVID, nearly two-thirds (63.7%) reported some limitation in their daily activities.

Nearly one in five (18.8%) reported that they were limited a lot. That means at least 192,000 people in the UK now experience disability as a result of long COVID.

When these figures are put in context of the total population, about 1.5% of people living in the UK aged 35-69 years now experience at least some limitation in their daily activities as a result of long COVID.

That’s a lot.

The impact of long COVID appears to be less substantial in children and adolescents compared to adults, consistent with COVID-19 generally being less severe in younger age groups.

Nonetheless, in absolute terms, a large number of children and adolescents are affected.

Healthcare workers, social care workers, retail workers, and teachers were most likely to report long COVID, but this was likely explained by increased risk of being infected.

Odds of reporting long COVID by occupation are shown below.

These findings clearly show the impact of COVID-19 extends well beyond premature mortality.

COVID-19 has substantial health, social, and economic costs that are not reflected in mortality statistics.

This negative impact on quality of life is important and under-recognised.