Almost 700,000 people have been suffering with long Covid symptoms for at least two years, according to latest data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS).
The figures for 2 January show a rapid increase of 35% from around 507,000 people in October, to 687,000 at the start of the year.
Around 1.2 million people said they had been suffering for at least one year – up from 1.1 million in October.
There was some encouragement from the figures as the overall number of people experiencing long Covid symptoms for at least four weeks appears to have dropped slightly to just below two million.
This appears to have been mostly driven by fewer people reporting more recent cases of long Covid, with those reporting symptoms of at least 12 weeks remaining at around 1.8 million.
Limiting daily activities
The ONS reported that long Covid symptoms adversely affected the day-to-day activities of 1.5 million people (77% of those with self-reported long Covid), with 380,000 (19%) saying their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.
Fatigue continued to be the most common symptom, reported by 71% of sufferers, followed by difficulty concentrating (52%), shortness of breath (48%) and muscle ache (47%).
The ONS added that self-reported long Covid was greatest in people aged 35 to 69 years, women, people living in more deprived areas, those working in social care, those aged 16 years and over who were not working and not looking for work, and those with another activity-limiting health condition or disability.
