The number of people in the UK suffering symptoms associated with long Covid for more than a year has increased by 99,000 taking the total past three-quarters of a million, according to official data.
Office for National Statistics data covering the period to 5 March 2022 showed the number of people who had been suffering symptoms associated with long Covid for more than a year had reached 784,000, up from 685,000 as of 31 January 2022.
The number of people suffering long Covid symptoms for at least 12 weeks also rose by 100,000 from 1.1m to 1.2m over the same period.
Overall, 1.7 million people had been suffering long Covid symptoms for more than four weeks, up from 1.5m at the end of January.
Fatigue continued to be the most common symptom reported as part of individuals’ experience of long Covid, affecting 51% of those with self-reported long Covid. This was followed by shortness of breath (34%), loss of smell (28%), and muscle ache (24%).
Commenting on the figures, Ian Ranger, head of claims, group insurance at Canada Life, noted that for people with long Covid their support needs are “vast”.
“We are finding that individuals suffering from long Covid were not only struggling physically, but may also have issues from a psychological and cognitive perspective,” he said.
“They may be suffering from a wide range of symptoms and as the length of absence increases the challenges increase.”
Ranger added that the nature of an individual’s symptoms often means their return to work needs to be protracted.
Dr Julie Denning, managing director at Working To Wellbeing, told Health & Protection the firm has continued to see a “steady demand” for referrals into their long Covid service.
But she also added a continued trend that the firm is also seeing is that cognitive and emotional fatigue can take much longer to recover from than physical fatigue.
“This is particularly challenging in the context of supporting people back to work who have cognitively demanding roles,” Denning said. “We have noticed that often people with long Covid can require a much longer period of rehabilitation and a longer phased return to work. Setbacks can be significant, triggered by stress or minor ailments and rely on a very gentle management approach. Employer education can be really key to a successful and supported return to work.”
Denning added that the need for transparency and communication between employers and employees is crucial, especially during a phased return, so that both the employee and the employer feel supported.
“For employers having a sensitive and individualised approach to return to work can be critical to this. Ongoing coaching support during a phased RTW is often key in problem solving issues that come up or supporting employer understanding of invisible residual symptoms of long Covid. As one of our patients said it is about helping them live with the impact of long Covid not curing it.”