Australia sees huge decrease in flu cases due to coronavirus measures

By Alice Klein

Brendon Thorne/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Lockdown measures designed to stop the spread of the coronavirus in Australia seem to also be suppressing the country’s flu season.

Australia’s flu season normally peaks during its winter months, from June to August. But cases often start to build around January, as travellers from the northern hemisphere bring the virus into the country.

This year, Australia began with relatively high flu rates: it had 6962 laboratory-confirmed flu cases in January and 7161 in February. However, cases have since nosedived, with 5884 recorded in …