Covid isn’t over.

Long COVID will have long-lasting impacts on human resources and the economy.

Some pretty shocking data from the ONS on long COVID. The 4-week long COVID estimates include infections until the end of December 2021, so including the first two weeks after the Omicron variant became dominant. There are clear increases in prevalence being seen already.

Overall prevalence has increased to 1.5 million when considering the 28-day definition – that means 2.4% of our population. That’s 1 in 42 people having persistent symptoms for 4 weeks or more currently. If you consider the 12-week definition it’s still very high: 1.7%.

685,000 people are estimated to have now had persistent symptoms for more than one year. Around 1 million say this affects their day to day activity to some extent. So very functionally relevant, and longstanding symptoms in a very large population.

Who is being affected?

Young people, poor people, and those in high-exposure occupations: greatest prevalence (approaching 4%) in teaching and health and social care occupations.

Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: 3 March 2022. | ONS

Children are also affected: 119,000 children now with long COVID based on the 28-day definition of whom 21,000 now have had persistent symptoms for more than a year.

I cannot believe that we are essentially completely ignoring a condition that has affected 1.5 million people, of which 700,000 people affected now for more than a year.

Ignoring long COVID will be our undoing: given the huge impact it’s clearly having.

Even from a purely economic standpoint, if that is all policy makers care about, this is hugely significant. Even if they don’t care about people’s health, they should care about this because it will have long-lasting impacts on human resources and the economy.

And remember the full impact of the omicron wave hasn’t been felt in these estimates yet. That will only be known in the coming months.

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— AUTHOR — ▫ Dr Deepti Gurdasani, Senior Lecturer in Epidemiology, Statistical Genetics, Machine Learning, Queen Mary University of London.   Going Further: Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: 3 March 2022 | ONS Sources Text: This piece was first published as a Twitter thread and turned into the above article on 6 March 2022 with the purpose of reaching a larger audience. It has been minorly edited and corrected, and published with the author’s consent. | The author of the tweets writes in a personal capacity. Cover: Unsplash/De an Sun. (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.) Share this article:       [Read our Comments Guidelines] Read more Repression of climate and environmental protest is intensifying across the world — A global report reveals rising repression and criminalisation of climate and environmental protests, with state and corporate actors employing anti-protest laws, harsher policing, and violence to stifle activism worldwide. US election pollsters were actually a lot closer than people think — Polling accuracy in the U.S. presidential election faced criticism, despite improved performance over 2020. Small errors in a tight race amplified perceived inaccuracies, but swing state polls generally proved reliable, reflecting a close contest, Professor John Curtice explains. The rise and rise of national populism — National populism, fuelled by media-backed disinformation, anti-immigrant rhetoric, and libertarian ideologies, threatens democracies globally by eroding institutions, fostering fear, and exploiting divisions. Prince Andrew and the British establishment’s ‘target-rich environment’ for spies — A UK tribunal upheld the ban on a Chinese businessman, citing national security risks. His links to Prince Andrew underscore concerns about foreign influence and lapses in public scrutiny.