Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what recent estimate he has made of the number of people with long covid; and what assessment he has made of the level of demand among people with long covid for (a) clinical support and (b) rehabilitation.

The latest prevalence data for ‘long’ COVID-19 published by the Office for National Statistics (ONS) estimated that 1.1 million people living in private households in the United Kingdom were experiencing self-reported symptoms as at 5 September 2021. However, it should be noted that not everyone with persistent symptoms will need access to health care. NHS England and NHS Improvement have provisionally estimated that approximately 2.9% of people will need NHS support. NHS England and NHS Improvement have estimated that approximately 30% to 50% of patients could be appropriate for supported self-management, 18% to 30% could be treated in primary and community care and 20% to 50% through specialist services and rehabilitation pathways.