Cases of long Covid (FOI)

​Request

How many cases are there of Long Covid in Jersey?

If this is not available, are there mechanisms and protocols being developed (as there have been in the UK) for identifying how many cases of long Covid there are? (the UK has recently published "Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: 4 June 2021", which is an update of an early ONC report).

If these mechanisms for identification are being developed, when is a report on cases of Long Covid to be expected to be available?

Prevalence of ongoing symptoms following coronavirus (COVID-19) infection in the UK: 4 June 2021

Response

Aligned with the definitions set out in the NICE guideline, the following clinical codes were added to EMIS (Educational Management Information System) in Jersey in March 2021 (EMIS codes were made available at the end of January 2021) allowing GPs to record potential cases of long COVID:

Symptomatic 5-12/52

Ongoing symptomatic COVID-19 ^ESCT1348648

Symptomatic >12/52

Post-COVID-19 syndrome ^ESCT1348645

As at 17 June 2021 there had been 43 cases coded by GPs using these codes.

Since 3 February 2021, the Office for National Statistics (ONS) included questions on Long COVID on its Coronavirus (COVID-19) Infection Survey (CIS).

In March 2021 the Contact Tracing, Monitoring & Enforcement (CTME) team sent a questionnaire to 1,745 recipients. This questionnaire was sent to positive cases of COVID-19 or direct contacts of those testing positive for COVID-19. Questions relating to ongoing symptoms were added to this questionnaire to gain a better understanding of the impact locally. These questions were based on those included in the CIS. Of the 412 respondents who reported COVID symptoms, these continued beyond four weeks for 160 individuals.

Work on this continues.