Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what estimate his Department has made of the number of people experiencing long-term effects of covid-19.

Research into the long-term health symptoms and impacts of COVID-19 and the number of people likely to be experiencing them, is ongoing. However, it is clear that for some of those who have survived, the virus and the treatment they have received to combat it will have a lasting impact on their health.

On 4 July the Government announced a research study into the long-term health impacts of COVID-19, which is being led by UK Research and Innovation and the National Institute for Health Research. The findings will support the development of new strategies for clinical and rehabilitation care, including personalised treatments based on the particular disease characteristics that a patient shows, to improve their long-term health.