Tens of thousands of people in England may have Covid symptoms lasting for more than a year after infection, a study revealed on Tuesday.
Researchers at Imperial College London analysed data from more than a quarter of a million Britons who responded to the REACT study, which surveyed their experiences of the virus and its impact on their overall health.
While the vast majority of those surveyed recovered from infection within two weeks, 7.5 per cent reported persistent symptoms lasting 12 weeks or more and 5 per cent reported symptoms lasting more than a year.
People infected in the Omicron wave of the pandemic in December 2021 were 88 per cent less likely to experience symptoms longer than 4 weeks after infection, compared to earlier waves.
The most common lasting symptoms were mild fatigue, difficulty thinking or concentrating and joint pains. Other persistent symptoms reported included a loss or change of sense of smell or taste, shortness of breath, severe fatigue, chest tightness or pain, and poor memory.
People were more likely to report symptoms for a long time after their initial infection if they were female, had severe initial symptoms, were infected earlier in the pandemic or had pre-existing health conditions.
Mental health and quality of life were worse among participants with ongoing persistent symptoms post-Covid compared with those who had never had the virus or recovered.
For the analysis, the team at Imperial collected follow up survey responses from 276,840 adults in England who registered for the REACT study. Of these, 59 per cent reported testing positive for Covid between 2020 and 2022.
Dr Christina Atchison, Principal Clinical Academic Fellow at the School of Public Health and first author on the study, said: “While the landscape has changed considerably since the early peak of the Covid pandemic, this analysis shows that a proportion of adults are still experiencing lasting symptoms.
“Importantly, we find that compared to wild type virus, those infected when Omicron was dominant were far less likely to report symptoms lasting beyond 12 weeks. This may reflect the changing levels of immunity in the population from previous exposure to the virus and vaccination.”
Professor Paul Elliott, Chair in Epidemiology and Public Health Medicine from the School of Public Health at Imperial College London, said: “Our latest findings from the REACT study offer further insights into the underlying factors which are associated with prolonged symptoms after initial COVID-19.
"We find that the variant of SARS-CoV-2 people are infected with, the initial severity of their symptoms, and whether they have pre-existing health conditions all have an impact on whether they will develop lasting symptoms.”
The study comes after an NHS hospital asked staff, visitors and patients to wear face masks in all clinical areas following a "significant" rise in Covid cases.
Sheffield Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said that anyone entering its hospitals and community hubs would need to wear a face covering to prevent the spread of infection.
The national NHS guidance states that individual trusts can decide their own mask-wearing protocols based on the infection rate in their area.
More than 12,100 new Covid cases were reported in the week up to October 14, according to the latest UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) figures. It is a drop on the 16,564 infections recorded in the seven days up to October 2 but significantly higher than the summer.
Cases remain low in London, with just 63 reported on October 18 - a significant drop on the 225 infections recorded two weeks before.
