1 in 9 Canadian adults have experienced long-term COVID symptoms, StatsCan says

About one in nine Canadian adults have experienced long-term symptoms from COVID-19 infection, according to a Statistics Canada report issued Friday.

That amounts to 3.5 million Canadians, it said.

Almost 80 per cent of those people with long-term symptoms have them for six months or more, the report said. In addition, more than half of those who ever had long-term symptoms still had them as of June 2023.

"Among Canadians who reported ever experiencing long-term symptoms, those who continue to experience these symptoms (58.2 per cent) outnumber those who have reported them resolved (41.8 per cent)," the report said.

Long COVID, also known as post COVID-19 condition, is defined by the World Health Organization as symptoms that persist for three months or longer after infection and can't be explained by anything else.

The Statistics Canada findings aren't surprising, said Manali Mukherjee, an assistant professor of medicine at McMaster University in Hamilton who specializes in respiratory diseases and immunology in an interview on Friday.

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"There is a subset of patients who have long COVID symptoms affecting their quality of life, their productivity on a daily level," said Mukherjee, who is a long COVID researcher and also spent about 18 months recovering from her own symptoms.

The most common long COVID symptoms are brain fog, fatigue and shortness of breath, she said.

Two-thirds of Canadian adults who have tried to get health-care services for their long-term symptoms say they haven't received enough treatment or support, the Statistics Canada report said.

Research shows that getting vaccinated against COVID-19 reduces the risk of getting long COVID, as well as the severity of symptoms, Mukherjee said.

High levels of prior infection

The Statistics Canada report also noted nearlyone in five Canadian adults have had more than one known or suspected COVID-19infection.

The percentage of Canadian adults who ever tested positive for or suspected a COVID-19infectionincreased from roughly 39 per centin the summer of2022to64 per centby June2023.

As of that time,45 per centof Canadians had experienced one infection,14 per centhad experienced twoanda little more than five per cent had experienced three or more.Statistics Canada said those numbers are likely an underestimate.

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