Long Covid: Recovery app for sufferers unveiled

An app to help people with the long-term effects of coronavirus track their symptoms and get advice has been unveiled.

NHS Wales has developed the bilingual app to help people with so-called "long Covid".

Long Covid - where symptoms persist for more than 12 weeks - could affect up to one in 10 people who catch coronavirus, or 300,000 people across the UK.

The app offers more than 100 videos and links to advice to help sufferers.

Developed by the NHS Wales respiratory group for the Welsh Government, it acts as a personal coach to users and is believed to be the first of its kind.

Advice is available from therapists, psychologists, dietitians and consultants.

Health Minister Vaughan Gething said: "We are still learning about the virus but it is estimated that around one in 10 people who have had coronavirus suffer some long-term symptoms.

"The launch of this app, which is the first of its kind, is to reassure those people that there is support available to them and that they are not alone.

"This app is part of a wider national approach which has been put into place to recognise those people who months later are still feeling a range of cardiac, neurological and psychological issues."

The app is available to anyone to download but health professionals are being asked to recommend it to patients for ongoing support.

Mr Gething added: "GPs are still best placed to signpost their patients to appropriate support, carry out testing to look for any treatable symptoms and refer patients to specialist consultants if necessary. This will of course mean that support is still available for anyone without a smartphone."

The Covid Recovery app is available to download from phone app stores.

Long Covid patients have described enduring months of symptoms including fatigue, breathlessness, skin problems, headaches and an ongoing loss of smell or taste.

Sarah Wakefield from Bridgend was still unable to work and struggled with breathing and simple household tasks eight months after catching Covid.

Previously a very fit sports instructor who could ride on mountains for six or seven hours, she said she was left hardly able to climb the stairs in her house.

Opera singer Lee David Bowen from Trethomas, Caerphilly, described a similarly lengthy battle with long Covid.

He experienced ongoing fatigue and brain fog, saying: "Something as simple as cooking a meal can be shattering, really debilitating.

"Trying to catch up on admin, emails from my agent or whatever, you get through one email and it's exhausting, absolutely exhausting."

Long Covid presents as a range of different symptoms suffered by people weeks or months after being infected, some of whom had not been very ill with the initial virus.

Fatigue is the most common problem, but breathlessness, a cough that will not go away, hearing and eyesight problems, headaches and loss of smell and taste have all been reported.

The Office for National Statistics suggests one in 10 people who tested positive for Covid-19 in a household survey still had symptoms 12 weeks later - but this is still experimental.

Danny Altman, a professor of immunology at Imperial College London said it was possible there were as many as 300,000 people with long Covid in the UK, although research is in its early stages.