HUNDREDS of thousands of people are suffering long Covid symptoms for at least a year, new figures suggest, sparking fresh calls for the condition to be treated as a disability. 

The number of people experiencing long Covid for a year or more in Britain has jumped further — from an estimated 376,000 last month to 385,000. 

The figures, from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), also suggest that 962,000 people were experiencing long Covid in the four weeks to June 6.

The condition is defined by Covid symptoms persisting for more than four weeks after a person’s first suspected exposure to infection.

Trade unions and disability rights campaigners renewed calls today for the government and employers to take the condition seriously and protect their rights at work. 

Public services union PCS’s national vice-president Zita Holbourne said: “With such a huge number of people experiencing long Covid, it is time that the UK government took it seriously.  

“This includes ensuring that all employers treat long Covid absences in the same way as Covid absences, so workers’ jobs are protected, they don’t face any penalty or capability action and receive full pay for these absences.”

TUC general secretary Frances O’Grady, who has previously called for long Covid to be treated as a disability, said: “No-one should face losing their livelihood or be subjected to unfair treatment if they have developed long Covid.

“Recognising long Covid as a disability would allow workers to draw on the full legal protections of the Equality Act. And acknowledging Covid-19 as an occupational disease would rightfully mean those who contracted Covid-19 at work will be compensated.”

Disabled People Against Cuts founder Linda Burnip echoed that people with long Covid must have their jobs protected. 

“Employment protection must be urgently put in place to ensure this happens,” she said, adding that the government must also retain the £20 uplift to universal credit to ensure that disabled people have adequate incomes.

The ONS also looked at the impact of the condition on people’s lives, estimating that long Covid was negatively affecting the ability of around two-thirds to carry out daily activities.

Those most affected by the condition are women as well as people living in deprived areas, the ONS found. 

“I know first hand as a trade union representative that long Covid is destroying lives and having devastating impacts,” Ms Holbourne continued. “There needs to be better public health advice on what those who contract Covid can do to try to prevent or limit any long Covid impacts.”