Figures reveal 138,000 people living with long Covid in our region

Date published: 09 April 2021


Oldham East and Saddleworth MP Debbie Abrahams is calling for more support for those with long Covid after new figures revealed an estimated 138,000 people in the North West of England were living with the condition in the four week period ending March 6, 2021.

ONS figures published this week show that an estimated 1.94% of people in the North West, were living with long Covid in this four-week period. 

That compares to the national average of 1.69% of people across the UK with the condition.  

The figures show there are a total of 1.1 million people living with the condition across the UK. 

Ms Abrahams, who is the vice chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Coronavirus, said: “These figures reveal the wide-scale impact of long Covid in Oldham, and across the region as a whole, and the urgent need for the government to step up support.

“Long Covid patients have felt like the forgotten victims of this pandemic.

"The government must end the current postcode lottery of rehabilitation services and ensure all those who need long-term treatment can access it.

“We also need a compensation scheme for key workers with long Covid, who have worked tirelessly on the frontline against the pandemic and are now paying a heavy price.

“The government must also recognise long Covid as an occupational disease and provide formal guidance to employers, to ensure that workers are treated fairly and given proper support.”

Of the 1.1 million people living with the condition, 674,000 said that long Covid symptoms were adversely affecting their day-to-day activities, while 196,000 reported that their ability to undertake their day-to-day activities had been limited a lot.

The analysis found that health and social care workers experienced the highest prevalence rates of self-reported long Covid.

Over one in 28 (3.6%) of those working in health care had long Covid, along with almost one in 32 (3.1%) of those working in social care.

Prevalence rates of self-reported long COVID were also higher in those aged 35 to 69 years, females and those living in the most deprived areas.

The APPG on Coronavirus is calling on the government to set up a compensation scheme for key workers living with long Covid who have been unable to return to work, including those working in health and social care. 

The cross-party group is also calling on the government to end the current “postcode lottery” of support for long Covid sufferers and ensure all those who need long-term treatment can access it.

The All Party Parliamentary Group on Coronavirus has made a series of recommendations to improve support for those living with long Covid, after receiving evidence from a large number of long Covid sufferers.

The key demands of the APPG are:

·        Long Covid clinics: The long Covid clinics established across England in December 2020 were an important step forward but access to treatment remains something of a postcode lottery, for example there are no clinics in Wales.

Where no clinics are established, there must be other pathways of care (for example through primary care) that are accessible to all those who are living with long Covid, regardless of whether or not they had Covid-19 confirmed by a positive test.

·        Compensation scheme: The UK government should recognise long Covid as an occupational disease and set up a long Covid compensation scheme for frontline, health and social care, and key workers.

This scheme should go beyond existing sick pay schemes and should be specific to those living with long Covid.

Such a scheme should be comparable to the Armed Forces Compensation Scheme (AFCS) and should recognise the relapsing nature of long Covid.

·        Employer guidelines: No formal guidance has yet been given to employers on how to treat employees with long Covid.

The UK government should develop guidelines for employers similar to NICE and SIGN guidelines.

·        Research: The National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) announced up to £20m of funding for research into long Covid in November, of which £18.5m has been awarded to research projects. 

Another £20m of funding was announced earlier this month for research into supporting those with long Covid.

However, more research is needed on the long-term effects of Covid-19 on people’s health, extending to include those with long Covid who were not hospitalised or tested.

·        Data: The UK government must count long Covid, at the moment the best estimates of long Covid come from ONS data.

The UK government should release the figure of those living with long Covid in the same way that positive cases, hospitalisation and deaths are recorded.

The government should also launch a national registry to count and publish the number of people living with long Covid in the UK.


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