PQ MNA calls for financial support for 'forgotten' people with long COVID

A petition has been launched on the National Assembly website to support people with long COVID who are unable to return to work.

The Parti Québécois MNA for Joliette, Véronique Hivon, has agreed to sponsor the petition, which calls on the government to recognize long COVID as a disease that can lead to disability.

Symptoms associated with the condition include fatigue, shortness of breath, memory and concentration problems, anxiety and depression.

According to the World Health Organization, between 10 and 20 per cent of patients who contract COVID-19 have persistent symptoms. In Quebec, this could represent up to 188,000 people.

"Long-term COVID is really an issue that seems to be off the government's radar," Hivon said in an interview. She said she was sending out a "heartfelt cry" on behalf of all "those people who feel forgotten."

"We never talk about them in the government's press conferences, even though the impacts they experience on a daily basis are enormous ... We are really living important human dramas," she insisted.

'THEY HAVE LOST THEIR JOBS'

The MNA said she has been questioned by fellow citizens who contracted COVID-19 during the first wave and have never recovered. "They have lost their jobs and are living on social assistance," she said.

"We know that after two years, the employment relationship can be severed. These are people who may be out of work altogether, even though they may have worked for a company for decades.

We are really asking the government to ensure that all protections can be maintained, that disability can be recognized ... and to give special attention to these people."

The petition calls on Quebec to recognize that long term disability can lead to disability under the Régie des rentes, so that the financial support and employment protections associated with it can be provided.

She pointed out that unlike France, which has established criteria for supporting people with long term disability, Quebec has not instituted a temporary or permanent disability program.

Hivon is also calling on the government to send a clear signal in its upcoming budget that it will protect people with long COVID.

She is also calling on the government to invest more in research on the condition, saying that the $200,000 provided to date is "completely inadequate" and "inexplicable."

"If we want to learn from what we've been through, I think one of the first things we have to do is to stand in solidarity with the people who survived COVID but are coming out of it extremely damaged," she said.

"The government is absent. It's incomprehensible."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published in French on March 15, 2022.