Health Secretary "worried" about long term impacts on infected people

According to Hancock, a "significant minority" of people who have contracted the virus have suffered "quite debilitating" conditions.

It comes after Sky News reported on how psychosis, insomnia, kidney disease, spinal infections, strokes, chronic tiredness and mobility issues are being identified in former coronavirus patients in northern Italy.

He told Sky News: "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.

"It is something that I'm worried about, we've taken action on - both through the NHS and through the research activities. It's one of the consequences of this being a novel virus.

"We're constantly learning about the impact of it and it does appear that for some people there's a pretty debilitating long-term impact, quite similar to a post-viral fatigue syndrome that you do get with many viruses.

"It's really important we support people who are in that situation and, also, that we do the research to find out what we can do about it."

Sky News reports that doctors in Lombardy, the worst-affected region in Italy, have said COVID-19 is a systemic infection that affects all the organs of the body, not, as was previously thought, just a respiratory disease.