How Many People Are Still Ill from COVID?

Long COVID — defined by NICE as symptoms persisting four or more weeks after infection — peaked at 2.1 million sufferers across Great Britain in January 2022, with subsequent estimates putting the figure at approximately 1.5 million in 2024.^[1] Women are affected more than men, and prevalence concentrates heavily among working-age adults aged 35–69. Some 800,000 people report long COVID limits their daily activities; 50,000 are unable to work at all.^[1] OBR estimates attribute roughly 20% of the rise in long-term sickness inactivity (from 2.1 million to 3.2 million since 2019) to long COVID, with the estimated economic cost running to £5 billion per year.^[2] NHS England established 85 long COVID assessment clinics with a 12-week average wait; there is no licensed treatment, with care symptom-based.^[3] Vaccination reduces long COVID risk by around 50%, and the NIHR funded over £50 million of research through the PHOSP-COVID study.^[4]

Healthcare workers, care home staff, and transport workers unable to work from home were disproportionately affected during the first two waves before vaccination — mirroring pandemic exposure patterns. Post-exertional malaise, where physical or cognitive effort triggers symptom relapse lasting days, makes conventional rehabilitation counterproductive and traps patients in enforced inactivity. Children were not spared: multisystem inflammatory syndrome (MIS-C and PIMS-TS) hospitalised hundreds, with some experiencing lasting cardiac and neurological effects. Clinical trials in 2024–25 are testing antivirals, low-dose naltrexone for neuroinflammation, and apheresis, though none has yet produced definitive results.