AS many as 5,000 Brits could be suffering from long Covid every single day by the end of the summer months, according to business secretary Kwasi Kwarteng.

Mr Kwarteng said that it is “not beyond the imagination” that so many people will suffer from the condition.

It follows the warning from Chris Whitty that the number of long Covid sufferers will increase, particularly among young people.

England’s chief medical officer urged the UK to “push hell for leather” to reduce coronavirus infection rates and roll out the vaccines to prevent a significant increase in long Covid.

He warned young people will be particularly hit by the collection of syndromes associated with the virus.

One of the key experts in the coronavirus response, Prof Whitty said he expects people who contract the Delta variant to be affected by long Covid at similar rates to previous strains.

But he said soaring case rates will mean more unvaccinated people will be struck by the disorder, defined as symptoms persisting for more than four weeks.

“Since there’s a lot of Covid at the moment and the rates are going up, I regret to say I think we will get a significant amount more long Covid particularly in the younger ages where the vaccination rates are currently much lower,” he said during a health discussion at the Local Government Association’s annual conference.

“Fundamentally the two ways to prevent long Covid in my view are to keep Covid rates right down and make sure everyone is vaccinated so they get very mild disease and I think we really just need to push hell for leather for those two.

“The deaths from Covid I think are mercifully going to be much lower in this wave compared to the previous ones as a proportion of cases but long Covid remains, I think, a worry.”

Recent figures from the Office for National Statistics suggested 385,000 people in the UK had experienced long Covid lasting for at least a year.

The estimates said 962,000 people experienced long Covid in the four weeks to June 6.

Common long Covid symptoms you should look out for include:

  • extreme tiredness (fatigue)
  • shortness of breath
  • chest pain or tightness
  • problems with memory and concentration ("brain fog")
  • difficulty sleeping (insomnia)
  • heart palpitations
  • dizziness
  • pins and needles
  • joint pain
  • depression and anxiety
  • tinnitus, earaches
  • feeling sick, diarrhoea, stomach aches, loss of appetite
  • a high temperature, cough, headaches, sore throat, changes to sense of smell or taste
  • rashes