New Zealand’s influenza season has arrived late and shows little sign of easing, with doctors warning it could now run well into spring while schools report some of their heaviest absences of the year and hospital emergency departments record their busiest stretch of the winter.
Specialist GP Dr Bryan Betty told 1News that practices around the country were seeing a sharp rise in cases at the point in the calendar when the season would normally be tailing off.
“We seem to have had a very late influenza season this year and what we are seeing is a very large uptake in the number of influenza cases around the country,” Betty said. “We are seeing this very late surge in influenza cases, which may actually run into spring at this point.”
The effect is showing up first in classrooms. At Point Chevalier School in Auckland, 65 students were away sick on Monday. Principal Stephen Lethbridge said absences had peaked at around 140 students several weeks ago, and about 100 children were off on a single day last week. Most of the cases were influenza A.
The illness has been moving through staffrooms as well, which creates a second problem for schools already short of children. “Principals are having trouble finding relief teachers sometimes, and when that happens, classes are obviously joining together, and senior leaders are having to go in and teach class,” Lethbridge said.
Some pupils at the school have started wearing masks, cleaning and sanitising have been stepped up, and parents are being asked to keep unwell children at home. That sits awkwardly against the attendance push of the past two years, and Lethbridge acknowledged the tension directly.
“Attendance at school is important, and we’re always encouraging our children to attend school,” he said. “But when we get illnesses like this, it makes sense just to stay home, get over the contagious period, and then get back to school when they’re ready.”
Similar reports are coming from the regions. In Gisborne, medical officer of health Dr Oz Mansoor told the Gisborne Herald the local influenza season was worse than last year. “We do get these little bursts of the spread of influenza every year, but we really haven’t had a bad one for some years,” Mansoor said. “What we’re suffering now really seems to be quite bad.”
Hospitals are carrying the load at the other end. Health New Zealand says emergency departments are seeing some of their highest demand of the winter, with 5,341 people presenting nationwide on Monday alone. Across the first three days of last week, emergency departments recorded 15,123 presentations, up from 13,863 over the same three days the week before, an increase of about 9 percent.
Health New Zealand executive regional director central Chris Lowry said the agency was dealing with more patients and fewer staff at the same time. “Our hospital EDs are seeing increased demand, particularly this week. Some of our hospitals have also been impacted by staff sickness,” he said. “High demand combined with staff sickness does create pressure in our EDs however we have contingency plans in place to ensure care continues to be delivered safely.”
Dedicated wards have been set aside for influenza patients. Health New Zealand says 103 additional hospital beds have been opened with up to 163 flexible beds available if they are needed, and that it has hired, made offers to, or arranged extra duties and overtime covering 337 full time equivalent staff under its $25 million winter plan.
The ambulance service has now broken its own record twice inside a week. Hato Hone St John says a record 2,606 calls came through 111 on Friday, passing the previous high of 2,562 set only six days earlier on 8 August. Demand stayed heavy over the weekend, with 2,507 calls on Saturday and 2,268 on Sunday. The service remains under the major incident declaration it made on 9 August, its first activation of the emergency operations centre since the Covid-19 pandemic.
Director of ambulance operations Doug Gallagher said crews were still getting to people, but the queue behind the most urgent cases had grown. “Our people are continuing to respond effectively, and emergency ambulance help remains available. We are continuing to prioritise patients with life-threatening and time-critical conditions,” he said. “However, we expect workload to remain very high this week, and some patients with less urgent conditions may wait longer than usual to receive an ambulance.”
Auckland is under the most strain, accounting for almost a third of emergency ambulance incidents nationwide over the past week at 29.5 percent, with the pressure concentrated in the evening and overnight. Gallagher said the most common reasons for calling 111 were referrals from a health practitioner, chest pain, breathing problems, falls, and people feeling generally unwell. He asked people not to hold back in a genuine emergency. “Please do not delay calling 111 in an emergency because you have heard that ambulance services are busy,” he said.
Some of the overflow is landing on urgent care clinics. Local Doctors Otara in South Auckland, which moved to round the clock opening this year, told RNZ that waits at the clinic had stretched to five hours at the winter peak. “This winter the flu season has been particularly severe. We are seeing a higher number of sick children, elderly patients, coming to our service throughout the day,” Dr Niroshika Kotte Arachchige said. Some patients arrive after a night at Middlemore Hospital, others because a GP appointment is two to three weeks away, and a nearby clinic at Takanini has closed temporarily because of staff sickness and shortages.
The Royal New Zealand College of General Practitioners said on Saturday that emergency departments remained over capacity in many parts of the country, and that influenza related hospitalisations in Auckland had doubled in a week. College president Dr Luke Bradford asked people with symptoms to stay away from work and school. “Stay home when you are sick. Influenza spreads before you feel your worst,” he said. The college has also asked practices to bring back some of the infection control steps used during the pandemic, including telephone triage before an appointment and keeping patients with respiratory symptoms apart from others in the waiting room.
Health New Zealand says influenza A is the most common strain circulating this year and is covered by the 2026 vaccine. Emma Prestidge, chief advisor for the National Immunisation Programme, said it was not too late for people to be immunised.
What makes this season unusual is its timing rather than its size. Since the pandemic, influenza has tended to peak early, in June or July, and then fade before the school holidays are over. This year the curve has kept climbing through August, which is why doctors are now talking about spring. Cold, damp housing is part of the backdrop, and a survey released last week found four in ten renters still reporting mould or damp in their homes despite the healthy homes standards.
Have you or your family been knocked over by the flu this year, and how long did it take to shake off. Tell us in the comments below.
This article was written by AI, briefed to report the facts, hopefully without some of the bias people bring to the job 🙂
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