Long COVID as a concept emerged in late spring 2020 as people reported ongoing symptoms long after initial infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.1

By December, around 1 in 5 people testing positive for COVID-19 said they were experiencing symptoms for 5 weeks or longer, while around 1 in 10 had symptoms for 12 weeks or longer. This equated to approximately 186,000 people at that moment living with symptoms that had persisted for between 5 and 12 weeks.2

To better understand prevalence, NICE analysed data from 23 studies from around the world relating to people experiencing symptoms 4-12 weeks after initial infection. This included people who had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (n=142 to 950) and those who had not (n=670 to 3,770).3

The combined results show a wide range of values for individual symptom

Long COVID as a concept emerged in late spring 2020 as people reported ongoing symptoms long after initial infection with the SARS-CoV-2 virus.1

By December, around 1 in 5 people testing positive for COVID-19 said they were experiencing symptoms for 5 weeks or longer, while around 1 in 10 had symptoms for 12 weeks or longer. This equated to approximately 186,000 people at that moment living with symptoms that had persisted for between 5 and 12 weeks.2

To better understand prevalence, NICE analysed data from 23 studies from around the world relating to people experiencing symptoms 4-12 weeks after initial infection. This included people who had been admitted to hospital with COVID-19 (n=142 to 950) and those who had not (n=670 to 3,770).3

The combined results show a wide range of values for individual symptoms;