Australian workers living with long COVID cost the economy, on average, about $9.6 billion in 2022, according to a published in the . Led by the University of Melbourne, the Australian National University (ANU) and UNSW Sydney, the researchers calculated the number of lost labor hours of Australian adults who were unable to work, or were forced to work reduced hours, in 2022 because they were experiencing ongoing COVID-19 symptoms up to 12 months after their initial diagnosis.
The researchers say at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in September 2022, up to 1.3 million Australians were estimated to be living with long COVID. Of these, some 55,000 were children (aged 4 and under) who are ineligible for vaccination in Australia.
ANU Professor Quentin Grafton said the health and economic burden of long COVID in Australia is significant, especially on working adults. "Workers experiencing ongoing COVID-19 symptoms months after their initial diagnosis resulted in, on average, about 100 million lost labor hours in 2022. This is equivalent to an average loss of eight hours per employed person, per year, including both full-time and part-time employment," Professor Grafton said.
"We estimate this equates to economy-wide losses, on average, of about $9.6 billion in 2022, or one-quarter of Australia's real gross domestic product growth that year. This does not account for losses such as healthy employees who can't work because they're caring for others with long COVID.
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