London, Jun 25 (IANS): More than 2 million people in England may have had long Covid-19 lasting for at least 12 weeks, a new research has revealed.

The Imperial College London's REACT-2 (REal-time Assessment of Community Transmission) study issued on Thursday showed that more than one third of people who had Covid-19 reported prolonged symptoms, such as tiredness and muscle aches or shortness of breath, tightness in the chest and chest pain, Xinhua news agency reported.

The findings were based on data from 508,707 adults who took part in the study between September 2020 and February this year.

It was noted, however, that the study was based on people reporting their own symptoms and it might over-estimate the prevalence of long Covid because many of the symptoms are common and not unique to coronavirus.

Professor Paul Elliott, director of the REACT program, said in a statement: "Our findings do paint a concerning picture of the longer-term health consequences of Covid-19, which need to be accounted for in policy and planning.

"Long Covid-19 is still poorly understood but we hope through our research that we can contribute to better identification and management of this condition, which our data and others' suggest may ultimately affect millions of people in the UK alone."