Quantifying the costs of long COVID

New research by a multi-university team has estimated that long COVID cost the Australian economy nearly $10 billion in 2022 alone.

The study, which looked at data from 2022 to 2024, found that long COVID could have affected as many as 1.37 million people – or 5.4 per cent of Australia’s population – at its peak in September 2022. The research team estimated that, even 12 months later, up to 3.4 per cent of the population was still living with symptoms.

A more conservative estimate from the same study suggests that the total number of lost work hours during 2022 was around 102.4 million. From this figure, the research team estimated a total productivity loss of $9.6 billion.

“Long COVID affects people of all ages and can occur regardless of the severity of their COVID infection,” the authors say in an article in The Conversation. “Widespread and ongoing COVID infections means if even only a small percentage of people develop long COVID, this is still a very large number of people.

“Our study suggests the impact of long COVID is highest in working-age adults, which is why the economic impacts are so great.”

The researchers make several commonsense suggestions for reducing the risk of contracting long COVID:

• Keeping up to date with COVID-19 vaccinations
• Wearing masks in public spaces, especially in large crowds
• Taking measures to improve indoor air quality.

AIRAH’s Infection Control STG will discuss the spread of COVID-19 and other airborne viruses in a presentation at the 2024 HVAC Innovation Conference in Brisbane from September 12–13.