Half a million Aussies to have long Covid symptoms by early December: report

Researchers have found more than 110,000 Australians with long Covid will be suffering ‘significant impacts’ on their daily lives by early December..

Researchers say antibody surveillance data suggests at least 65 per cent of Australian adults and 64 per cent of children may have been infected by Covid by the end of August this year. Picture: NCA NewsWire

Expert modelling suggests up to 500,000 Australians will be experiencing long Covid symptoms in early December, as researchers call for greater effort to track the disorder and support sufferers.

Detailed number crunching by research institutes at the universities of Tasmania and Deakin estimates at least 160,000 Australians will be suffering full-blown long Covid early next month, while at least 35,000 will find their daily lives “significantly impacted”.

Conservative modelling suggested at least 8000 would be unable to work due to their symptoms but that this number could be as high as 40,000.

The modelling found it was “very likely” an even greater number of Australians – more than 500,000 – would have some long Covid symptoms, with more than 110,000 suffering “significant impacts”.

The researchers, at UTAS’s Menzies Institute for Medical Research and Deakin’s Institute for Health Transformation, called for a major effort to better document, track and respond to the disturbing illness.

Relatively consistent overseas study findings suggest 20 per cent to 25 per cent of long Covid sufferers report significant negative impacts on their ability to conduct normal daily activities. Picture: AFP

“It is likely that several tens of thousands of Australian adults will be unable to work in December due to long Covid,” said report lead author Professor Martin Hensher.

“This will not only have a detrimental impact on the health and wellbeing of our country, but many flow-on effects to the economy.

“Australia is an outlier among similar countries in not having instituted large-scale national surveys and surveillance of long Covid. As a result, Australia lacks strong data on which to base its long Covid policy response. This information deficit risks becoming an increasingly significant policy failure.”

In their report on the findings, the researchers said antibody surveillance data suggested at least 65 per cent of Australian adults and 64 per cent of children may have been infected by Covid by the end of August 2022.

The report used the World Health Organisation’s long Covid definition of symptoms, lasting for at least two months after infection, that cannot be explained by alternative diagnosis. Common symptoms include fatigue, shortness of breath and problems thinking or concentrating.

Relatively consistent overseas study findings suggest 20 per cent to 25 per cent of long Covid sufferers report significant negative impacts on their ability to conduct normal daily activities.

Australia was behind “peer” countries in providing “regular official surveillance” of long Covid, the report said.

“Today, Australia is not where it could or should have been in its response to long Covid and post Covid conditions,” the authors concluded. “Mounting an appropriate response to long Covid is especially challenging … yet it also cannot be ignored simply because it is inconvenient.

“Calibrating an appropriate, cost-effective response to long Covid that meets the needs of patients, while recognising the realities of scarce resources and competing priorities, must start with an urgent effort to remedy the increasingly unacceptable deficits in this country’s understanding of the condition.”

As well as new monitoring programs, the report recommended “clear policies” be adopted to guide long Covid sufferers’ access to sick leave, insurance and welfare support, including the National Disability Insurance Scheme.