{"id":333353,"date":"2026-03-17T04:09:12","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:09:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/333353\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T04:09:12","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T04:09:12","slug":"survey-suggests-more-than-400000-kiwis-may-have-had-long-covid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/333353\/","title":{"rendered":"Survey Suggests More Than 400,000 Kiwis May Have Had Long Covid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tuesday, 17 March 2026, 4:04 pm
Press Release: Long Covid Support Aotearoa<\/a><\/p>\n

The Ministry of Health has today released national survey
\ndata showing the scale
\nof Long Covid in New Zealand.<\/p>\n

By June 2025, the
\nsurvey estimates more than 400,000
\nKiwi adults may have developed Long Covid
\nat some point – including about 185,000
\nstill experiencing symptoms.<\/p>\n

Results from the
\njust-released 2024\/25 New Zealand Health Survey
\nindicate:<\/p>\n

The equivalent of 185,000
\nadults in New Zealand was experiencing Long Covid
\nat the time of the survey (July 2024 to June
\n2025).About 1 in 11 adults (9.2%
\nor roughly 401,000 people) reported ever
\nhaving Long Covid symptoms following a Covid-19
\ninfection.This represents 11.9% of
\nadults who reported having had
\nCovid-19.Women, M\u0101ori and disabled adults were
\nmore likely to report having had Long Covid.Of
\nthose who\u2019d had Covid, about 1 in 6 M\u0101ori
\nadults (15.5%) reported having had Long Covid,
\ncompared to about 1 in 9 non-M\u0101ori adults
\n(11.3%).Nearly half of those who
\ndeveloped Long Covid were still experiencing symptoms when
\nsurveyed.<\/p>\n

Long Covid Support Aotearoa says it
\nonly learned this week that the national health survey
\nincluded a question on Long Covid.<\/p>\n

Advertisement – scroll to continue reading<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re
\nsurprised it took so long for the data to become public \u2014
\nnine months after the survey ended,\u201d said spokesperson
\nLarisa Hockey.<\/p>\n

Just last week the group called
\nfor better national monitoring of Long Covid. It said an
\nestimated 250,000 Kiwis could be affected based on overseas
\nprevalence studies.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s survey suggests about
\n185,000 New Zealanders were living with Long Covid symptoms
\nat the time of the survey \u2014 roughly the population of
\nHamilton and broadly consistent with the earlier
\nestimate,\u201d Hockey said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt also suggests more
\nthan 400,000 people may have experienced Long Covid at some
\nstage, about the combined population of Wellington and
\nHamilton.\u201d<\/p>\n

Long Covid Support Aotearoa members say
\nthe results are sobering. While based on self-reported data,
\nthe nationally-representative health survey is a respected
\ncornerstone of Health Ministry statistics across
\nconditions.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re shocked and concerned that so
\nmany people have been underserved by New Zealand\u2019s health
\nauthorities,\u201d Hockey said.<\/p>\n

Long Covid – and
\nassociated health conditions such as ME\/CFS –
\nremains poorly recognised and under-supported in New
\nZealand, despite growing international evidence about its
\nimpacts. Many with the condition face loss or reduction of
\nemployment, housing insecurity, and severe limitations in
\ndaily life.<\/p>\n

The group is also questioning why the data
\nhas only now been released.<\/p>\n

On Friday both the
\nMinistry of Health and Health New Zealand told TVNZ\u2019s
\nBreakfast programme they had \u201cno plans for Long Covid
\nmonitoring nor for any economic analysis.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNow
\nthat the scale of the problem is clearer, we want to know
\nwhy there are still no plans to monitor it,\u201d Hockey
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cDoes the current 2025\u201326 New Zealand Health
\nSurvey include questions on Long Covid, for
\nexample?\u201d<\/p>\n

Catherine Appleby, a Long Covid Support
\nAotearoa nurse practitioner, said the results were deeply
\nconcerning.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is sobering information.
\nGovernment inaction is letting the problem grow,\u201d she
\nsaid.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn particular, the relatively high M\u0101ori
\nprevalence of Long Covid is unacceptable. This significant
\ninequity is an urgent public health issue that deserves
\ngovernment attention,\u201d Appleby said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the words
\nof Malala Yousafzai: we don\u2019t want sympathy \u2014 we want
\naction.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\u00a9 Scoop Media<\/a>
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\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Tuesday, 17 March 2026, 4:04 pmPress Release: Long Covid Support Aotearoa The Ministry of Health has today released…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":35750,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[134,40159,175371,23753,3523,111,24636,139,69,11112,29756],"class_list":["post-333353","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health","tag-health","tag-health-policy","tag-long-covid-support-aotearoa","tag-maori","tag-medical","tag-new-zealand","tag-newsworthy","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-scoop","tag-statistics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333353","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=333353"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/333353\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/35750"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=333353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=333353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=333353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}