Long Covid keeps significant number of people unemployed, study finds

An analysis of workers' compensation claims in New York found that 71% of claimants with long-term Covid needed a continued medical treatment or were unable to work for six months or more.

Long Covid is having a significant effect on the American workforce, preventing a significant number of people return to work while others continue to need medical care long after returning to their jobs, according to a new analysis of workers' compensation claims in New York State.

The study, released Tuesday by New York's largest workers' compensation insurer, found that during the first two years of the pandemic, about 71 % of people the fund classified as long-term Covid sufferers needed continued medical treatment or have been unable to work for six months or more. More than a year after contracting the coronavirus, 18% of long-term Covid patients had still not returned to work, more than three quarters of whom were under the age of 60, according to the analysis.

< p class="css-at9mc1 evys1bk0"> "Long Covid has hurt the workforce," says the report from the New York State Insurance Fund, a state agency funded by employer-paid premiums. The findings, he added, "highlight the long Covid as an underappreciated but important reason for the many unfilled jobs and declining labor force participation rate in the economy, and they portend a possible reduced productivity as employers feel the strains of an increasingly sick workforce.”

The report, which analyzed related claims to Covid from patients exposed to the virus at work, filed between January 1, 2020 and March 31, 2022, and paid for by the agency, provides insight into the issue.The agency, one of the 10 largest compensation insurers the country's Workmen's Compensation Board, found that nearly a third of the 3,139 Covid-related claims it paid met its definition of long Covid.

Patients were covered by the fund if they tested positive for coronavirus and the agency or a workers' compensation board it determined they were at high risk of having been exposed to the virus at work, typically in settings like hospitals, grocery stores or public transit systems. The report classified a case as long Covid if, after infection, a patient required medical treatment for 60 or more days or lost 60 or more days of work.

“That’s a pretty conservative estimate,” said Gaurav Vasisht, executive director and chief executive of the insurance fund. “It’s not about capturing people who may have returned to work and who haven't seen a doctor and may still be in pain, so you know, they're just getting tougher."

During the reporting period, the Claims for the 977 people named by the fund as having long Covid cost about $17 million of the roughly $20 million paid out to all Covid patients, officials said, adding that the proportion of lost wages was slightly higher than that of medical treatment. But Mr. Vasisht warned that the dollar amounts rs provided only a partial picture as it was unclear how long people would need medical attention or time off for a long Covid period.

He added that the cost to patients goes beyond money. "The longer you are out of work, the harder it is for you to return to work, and that can stigmatize patients," Vasisht said. "It could be very disruptive to their family and work life."

Long Covid is defined by public health authorities as a constellation of symptoms that persist after infection initial or appear weeks later and may include breathing problems, fatigue and brain fog. The Government Accountability Office has long estimated that Covid has affected 7.7 to 23 million people in the United States.