Contents

Summary 5

What is long covid? 5

1 What is long covid? 8

1.1 Defining long covid 8

1.2 What causes long covid? 9

Risk factors for long covid 10

2 Diagnosing and treating long covid 12

2.1 Long covid symptoms 12

2.2 How is long covid diagnosed? 13

2.3 Managing long covid symptoms 13

2.4 Specialist NHS services for long covid 14

2.5 Vaccination and long covid 15

2.6 Research on long covid treatments 16

Medicines for long covid 16

Management, rehabilitation and long covid services 17

3 How common is long covid? 19

3.1 How many people are affected by long covid in the UK? 19

3.2 Characteristics of people with long covid 21

4 Impact of long covid in the UK 23

4.1 Calls for greater recognition of long covid 23

4.2 Healthcare services 24

Healthcare workers 25

4.3 Long covid and employment 27

Employment law protections 28

Parliamentary debate on support for employees with long covid 29

4.4 Industrial Injuries Disablement Benefit 30

Long covid

4 Commons Library Research Briefing, 20 May 2026

Recommendations for health and transport workers 31

Education professionals 33

Debate about including long covid as a prescribed disease 33

4.5 Long covid and schools 34

Support for children with long covid 34

School attendance 34