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    • Study shows: Australians lost around 100 million working hours in one year due to Long Covid
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    Study shows: Australians lost around 100 million working hours in one year due to Long Covid

    Idris Bevan Posted on

    Important points
    • A study shows that the economy suffered nearly $10 billion in productivity losses in 2022 due to Long Covid.
    • People with Long COVID suffer from long-term symptoms such as fatigue, shortness of breath and joint pain.
    • According to experts, the study shows that the government needs to pay more attention to combating this disease.
    More than a million Australians who contracted Long COVID at the height of the pandemic had difficulty working or had to reduce their working hours because of their illness, a study shows.
    Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), the University of NSW (UNSW) and the University of Melbourne have found that around 100 million working hours were lost in 2022 because affected adults were unable to work or reduced their working hours.
    As the study shows, this cost the economy almost $10 billion in lost productivity.
    It is estimated that up to 1.3 million Australians were living with Long COVID at the time, the study found.

    “We estimate this equates to economy-wide losses averaging about $9.6 billion in 2022, or a quarter of Australia’s real gross domestic product growth this year,” ANU Professor Quentin Grafton, one of the study’s authors, said on Monday.

    The $9.6 billion loss in productivity equates to an average loss of $7,385 per person.
    “Our research likely underestimates the economic impact of Long COVID because it does not take into account losses such as healthy employees who are unable to work because they are caring for others with Long COVID.”
    Most of the affected workers were between 30 and 49 years old.
    such as fatigue, shortness of breath and joint pain that some people experience after having COVID-19.
    Valentina Costantino of UNSW’s Kirby Institute said the study showed MPs needed to place more emphasis on tackling Long COVID.
    More than four years after COVID-19 first appeared in the country, up to 873,000 Australians are believed to still be living with the disease, Costantino said.

    “A major focus of COVID-19 health policy is on preventing hospitalizations and deaths from acute COVID-19, with less attention paid to long COVID,” she said.

    Another author of the study, Professor Raina MacIntyre of UNSW, said strategies to contain COVID-19, and therefore Long COVID, should focus on indoor air quality and improved ventilation.
    “Financial support for long-Covid patients, at least for those who are unable to work due to their symptoms, such as access to a disability pension, would reduce their economic burden,” MacIntyre said.

    In June, the federal government announced $14.5 million in grants, part of a $50 million investment to gain better insights into strategies for managing long COVID in the population.

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    Idris Bevan
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