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Long COVID in Australia – a review of the literature
Publication
Release Date:
Topic: COVID-19
Citation
AIHW (Australian Institute of Health and Welfare) (2022) Long COVID in Australia – a review of the literature, AIHW, Australian Government, accessed 24 June 2026.
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Long COVID is a multi-system illness characterised by ongoing persistent symptoms that can last for weeks or months following COVID-19 infection. This review investigates the scale and impact of long COVID in the Australian context. The review found that most information is from research conducted in the USA and UK on long COVID related to COVID-19 infections in the first two years (2020–21) of the pandemic.
- ISBN: 978-1-922802-49-1
- Cat. no: PHE 318
- Pages: 80
Findings from this report:
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Around 5–10% of COVID-19 cases in Australia reported symptoms persisting for more than 3 months
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Key risk factors include severe COVID-19 illness, comorbidities, female sex and mid-adult age groups
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Up to September 2022, most long COVID research has been conducted outside of Australia, often using pre-Omicron data
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Two COVID-19 vaccination doses are associated with a 13% to 47% lower risk of symptoms persisting beyond 4 weeks