By Kelsey Wilkie For Daily Mail Australia
- The coronavirus pandemic and a horror flu season had medical experts worried
- Hospitals were scrambling to ensure they had enough intensive care beds
- But social distancing restrictions have seen influenza cases drop dramatically
- Here’s how to help people impacted by Covid-19
Medical experts feared a ‘perfect storm’ of the coronavirus pandemic and the horror flu season would wreak havoc across Australia as winter approached.
But the country’s strict social distancing measures have seen the number of influenza cases drop to the lowest in the past decade.
The impressive figures have experts calling for measures used to control COVID-19 to be used in future to prevent horror flu season outbreaks.
Australia’s flu season, which peaks between June and August, was tipped to be one of the worst in years.
Medical experts were bracing for hospitals to be swamped with influenza and coronavirus cases.
Hospitals were scrambling to ensure they had enough intensive care beds to cope with the increase.
But as the peak of the flu season approaches, medical experts have been left stunned at the number of influenza cases.
The number of flu infections at the start of the year were higher than average, with 7,681 cases reported in February, according to the Department of Health statistics.
But those figures started to take a nosedive in March with cases dropping to 5,892.
The number of cases fell even further in April with just 307 influenza cases recorded – a drastic drop compared with April 2019 which recorded 18,691 cases.
May figures took an even bigger plunge when compared with the previous year, with 218 cases reported in 2020, compared with 30,568 in 2019.
The reduction in cases was likely a result of Australia’s social distancing measures, University of Sydney infectious diseases expert Robert Booy said.
The bans on almost all social gatherings and unnecessary travel were introduced in in March to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Professor Booy said the decision to close Australia’s borders to travellers on March 20 also played a part in the reduction of influenza cases.
‘We’re not importing any flu and anything that stops close contact with others is going to make it harder for the influenza virus to transmit,’ he told New Scientist.
There was also a record number of flu shots this year as health officials feared an influenza outbreak could strain hospitals which are already overrun with patients.
Virologist Kirsty Short said the decision to keep children home from school during the pandemic had also lowered the infection rate.
‘This is probably another reason why flu cases are down, since schoolchildren are known to be major spreaders of the influenza virus in normal years,’ she said.
She said it would be interesting to see if some of the measures used to control COVID-19 would continue to be used to prevent horror flu seasons and potentially save more lives.
‘People are washing their hands more and instead of having the attitude that they can still go to work if they’re sick, they now know to stay home if they have respiratory symptoms.’
A spokeswoman for NSW Health told Daily Mail Australia influenza levels were much lower than previous years, with 44 notifications in May compared to an average of around 2,000 in the same period over the last five years.
‘This represents a drop of 94 per cent. The low levels are likely due to social distancing measures, better hand hygiene and high levels of vaccination.
However, she still urged residents to get vaccinated if they had not yet done so.
Free influenza vaccinations are available under the National Immunisation Program for people aged 65 and over, pregnant women, Aboriginal people and those with at-risk medical conditions.
The free NSW-funded vaccine is also available to all children aged six months to under five years.