Long covid to cost OECD member countries over €115bn a year for a decade, review says

Across the OECD it is estimated some 75 million people on average had long covid in 2021. File photo: Alamy/PA

The OECD has estimated long covid could cost Europe and other member countries over €115bn every year for the next 10 years.

Long covid “continues to cast a long shadow more than five years after the pandemic struck”, the OECD said after calling for improvements in patient care. Direct medical costs and indirect economic costs will “weigh heavily” on EU and OECD economies through to 2035, the OECD estimated.