It is in the government’s interest to take long Covid seriously

The burden of long Covid in the community is continuing to grow with each passing month, and the effects of this are now starting to materialise, writes Samuel Lovett

The government has failed to communicate the consequences of its ‘living with Covid’ policy (Getty)

There are now 1.7 million people in the UK suffering from long Covid. This amounts to roughly one in 40, or nearly 3 per cent of the population.

Take a deeper dive into the figures, as provided by the Office for National Statistics (ONS), and a grim picture begins to emerge.

As of 5 March, 322,000 people in the UK were reporting that their ability to undertake day-to-day activities had been limited “a lot” by long Covid. Of these, 172,000 say they have struggled considerably every day for the past 12 months.

And for the first time, the ONS has revealed that 74,000 people in the UK have been suffering from the condition for at least two years.

While encouraging the public to “live with Covid”, the government has failed to communicate the consequences of this approach. The burden of long Covid in the community is continuing to grow with each passing month, and the effects of this are now starting to materialise.

The Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD) has found that 26 per cent of companies cite the condition as a main cause of long-term staff absences, in a survey of 804 organisations representing more than 4.3 million employees.

The CIPD said that 46 per cent of the organisations had employees who had experienced long Covid, which is associated with fatigue, brain fog and memory issues, and that more should be done to support workers suffering from the condition.

“Long Covid remains a growing issue that employers need to be aware of, and they should take appropriate steps to support employees with the condition,” Rachel Suff, senior policy adviser for employment relations at the CIPD, said at the time.

The impact of the condition on the economy is likely to be significant. With people absent from work, forced to reduce their weekly hours, or unable to carry out the simple, or complex, tasks they once could, the loss of productivity may well be in the order of millions, if not billions of pounds.

It would be in the government’s interest to support these people and help get them back on their feet, but many patients are struggling to access the care they need.

The NHS has established a network of long-Covid clinics to offer treatment and rehabilitative services, but the latest data shows that, between 20 December and 16 January, only 4,401 patients in England received “specialist assessments” at these centres.

It is also feared that thousands of people left unable to work because of the effects of long Covid are missing out on weekly financial support via the government’s disability benefits scheme.

As of January, just 937 individuals with the condition had successfully claimed Personal Independence Payment (PIP), while a further 647 with long Covid had been assessed by the programme (some of whom will have been rejected for the benefit, with others waiting to be awarded it).

Such small figures barely scratch the surface of the hundreds of thousands of people whose lives have been overturned by debilitating and persistent symptoms.

And with infections reaching record-high levels in recent weeks, the burden of long Covid is only going to grow in the months ahead. Clearly, this is an issue we cannot afford to ignore, both for the sake of those affected and the wider economic impact it has. The only question, now, is when will the government realise this?