The impact of long Covid delivered a $10 billion blow to the Australian economy in just a single year, new research has found.
Scientists involved in the study, published in The Medical Journal of Australia, say the results show the federal government should make the condition a health priority.
Research suggests long COVID is linked to persistence of the virus in the body long after infection and this in turn causes dysfunction of the immune system.
SARS-CoV-2 can also affect the brain and Cognition especially executive function, which is the ability to plan, monitor and execute goals. This can result in difficulty performing work tasks and other activities of daily living among people with long COVID.
“Workers experiencing ongoing COVID-19 symptoms months after their initial diagnosis resulted in, on average, about 100 million lost labour hours in 2022,” ANU Professor Quentin Grafton said.
“This is equivalent to an average loss of eight hours per employed person, per year, including both full-time and part-time employment.
