Long Covid cost Australia’s economy as much as $6.4 billion in lost productivity in 2022, according to new research published on Monday.

Researchers from the Australian National University (ANU), the University of Melbourne, and the University of New South Wales (UNSW) Sydney used a mathematical model to estimate that in September 2022, 1.3 million Australians were living with long COVID, including 55,000 children aged four and younger.

Quentin Grafton, an economist and co-author of the study from ANU, stated that workers in Australia lost around 100 million labour hours in 2022 due to prolonged COVID symptoms experienced months after their initial diagnosis, Xinhua news agency reports.

“This is equivalent to an average loss of eight hours per employed person, per year, including both full-time and part-time employment,” he said within a press release.

“We estimate this equates to economy-wide losses, on average, of about 9.6 billion AUD in 2022, or one-quarter of Australia's real gross domestic product growth that year.”

The study also found that workers aged 30-49 contributed to over 50% of the total labour hours and productivity lost in 2022 due to long COVID.

In addition, Grafton noted that the research likely underestimates the economic impact of long COVID, as it does not include the lost productivity of healthy workers who are caring for others affected by the condition.

The researchers used their findings to urge governments and policymakers to prioritise long COVID as a public health issue. 

Furthermore, they estimated that by December this year, up to 873,000 Australians could still be suffering from long COVID a year after their initial infection.