If it felt like everyone at your work was off sick in July, you weren’t imagining things.
New data released today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) showed nearly twice as many people took sick days last month than they would in a regular July as Omicron swept across the country and cases of influenza were at their highest in years.
According to the data, about 750,000 people across Australia worked fewer hours than usual due to illness or injury in July this year – nearly double the number of people normally off work sick during the middle of winter.
In July 2021 about 439,000 people worked fewer hours due to illness, and in July 2020, that figure was about 407,000.
The number of people who could not work at all in July due to illness has also risen dramatically, with about 296,000 people working zero hours last month.
This was a huge jump compared with previous years with about 153,000 working zero hours due to illness in 2021 and about 134,000 people in 2020.
The chair of biostatistics at the University of South Australia, Prof Adrian Esterman, said the rise in people taking sick leave could be attributed to a number of factors, including high rates of Covid and influenza.
Cases of influenza had been down across Australia since the pandemic began and immunologists had warned that Australia would be entering this winter with a lower natural flu immunity due to the lockdowns and social distancing measures of the past two years.
“We reached the peak [of the Omicron wave] at about 20 July, and since then [Covid] numbers have been going down,” Esterman said.
“In the last few days the decrease is starting to slow [as we approach the] trough between peaks.”
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Hospitalisation numbers were at their highest this year in July, with more than 5,000 Covid patients admitted to hospital during the peak. This number has been on a steady decline throughout August.
Just because Covid case numbers were decreasing did not mean the pandemic was over, Esterman said, with Australia still recording about 15,000 to 20,000 new infections each day.
“We’ve still got very high numbers, even if we’re approaching the trough, so there is still constant pressure on hospital system,” he said.
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