Mum details 'long coronavirus' symptoms still leaving her exhausted after six months

7 October 2020, 08:18 | Updated: 7 October 2020, 10:54

'Long haul coronavirus' can affect people for months after their recover from Covid-19.

A mum has revealed she’s still suffering with long term effects after catching coronavirus back in April.

Clare Haynes, 50, from Birmingham was struck down with Covid shortly after the UK went into national lockdown.

But despite recovering, she now continues to get breathing problems, aching muscles and tingling in the arms and legs.

According to Birmingham Live, mum-of-two Clare spoke to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) about her painful symptoms in a bid to raise awareness.

She said: "I went from being able to dance four or five hours at a dance event ... to barely being able to walk up the stairs.

"I would wash up and have to come and lie on the sofa to recover. I haven't had a single day when I have felt how I did before I became ill."

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Clare was taken to hospital three times back in spring after falling ill with coronavirus and had to be given oxygen.

While mum has started to see an improvement over the past few weeks and will be heading back to work, she added the ordeal has left her feeling ‘absolutely dreadful’.

‘Long Covid’ or ‘long haul Covid’ is when people who have contracted the virus continue to suffer from symptoms for longer than two weeks.

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This is the time in which the World Health Organisation (WHO) states the virus will usually come and go.

Sufferers are not thought to be infectious over this extended period, but patients can experience fatigue, as well as respiratory problems, headaches, sleeplessness and loss of smell or taste.

According to professor of genetic epidemiology at King’s College, Tim Spector, it’s thought that up to 60,000 people in the UK have been suffering from long Covid for more than three months.

Elsewhere, a Facebook group called Long Covid Support Group currently has almost 25,000 members, many of who report symptoms lasting longer than two months.

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In mid-July, Health Secretary Matt Hancock admitted he was concerned about the long term effects of coronavirus on some people.

He said: “I am concerned there’s increasing evidence a minority of people – but a significant minority – have long-term impacts and it can be quite debilitating.

”So we’ve set up an NHS service to support those with long-term impacts of Covid-19 and, also, we’ve put almost £10m into research into these long-term effects.”

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