Australian data on long COVID remains limited compared to international data, and estimates of its prevalence have varied. A report from Australia’s parliamentary inquiry into long COVID, published in April, suggested 2-20 percent of people may develop long COVID following an infection.
A recent Australian study conducted when vaccines were widely available indicates earlier Omicron variants saw 10 percent of people who caught COVID develop long COVID.
Another recent study, yet to be peer-reviewed, found 18.2 percent of those infected went on to have long COVID. The wide-ranging estimates are likely to be because of different COVID variants, differences in vaccination, and different long COVID definitions and assessment methods.
The risk is lower in children. One Australian study indicated persistent symptoms in 8 percent of children who had COVID in 2020, while preliminary research points to a slightly lower risk among children infected in 2021.
But more research is needed, especially as the virus continues to evolve. This can be complicated because typical long COVID symptoms are common to many other health problems. As in other countries, more research is now underway in Australia to determine the accurate prevalence of the condition using a definition and methods that carefully exclude other causes.
Although research on long COVID risk factors with new variants is ongoing, we expect being female, having more severe initial disease and having other health conditions will increase a person’s chance of getting long COVID.
