'We've learnt to live with Covid but it's still deadly'

With the disease and its devastating after-effects looming menacingly over us, Zoë Beaty talks to experts and those suffering to find out more about the still pernicious Covid-19

- Zoë Beaty

Her morning coffee was the first clue. Earlier in the summer, Rebecca Jones made her usual pot at 8am and took the muchawaited first sip. Only, it tasted off. “It was just horrible,” says Jones. She’d tasted it once before, back in 2020. “That’s when I knew it was Covid.”

During this year’s unsettled summer, Covid has been quietly lurking in the background of many people’s lives. Four years ago, the sense of urgency was still in its infancy – we would experience two more nationwide lockdowns and UK death figures would reach 227,000 by May of 2023. Worldwide, that toll stretched to more than 7 million. We wore masks, we distanced ourselves, isolated – and worried.

The road back to normality was long and arduous, but very sweet for the majority. Our simplest pleasures – hugging, holidaying, not worrying about where a surgical mask is – were consistently vocalised for a while. It made sense that much of the thrill of being able to nip for a pint after work or do a food shop without queuing wore off relatively quickly.

It was almost a surprise when someone told you they’d tested positive. Isolation seemed silly again. But now, that confidence is steadily being chipped away at. A morsel of fear is back – but this time with little to no solid advice. And with a wider perspective of the new threat that long Covid poses.

Reports earlier this year found that up to 2 million people are living with long Covid in the UK, or one in 20 people who have contracted the disease. Symptoms include tiredness, difficulty sleeping, shortness of breath and chest pain, among many others. Women, people who smoke or who are overweight, who have been admitted to hospital due to the severity of their Covid symptoms or who live in deprived areas are most at risk. Age is also linked to “persistent symptoms”.