Flu deaths exceed Covid-19 in late 2025, doctors push early vaccines
Australia faces alarming rise in flu cases in 2026; Nearly 25,000 infections were recorded by the end of March; This is a warning sign following last year’s record-breaking outbreak.
The Royal Australian College of General Practitioners is urging Australians to book their annual flu jab before the winter months push hospitals to their limits.
Doctors want to avoid a repeat of 2025, when emergency rooms were overwhelmed, ambulances faced long delays and the flu killed 1,738 people. The 502,972 laboratory-confirmed cases that year marked the worst flu season in history.
From August 2025 to January 2026, the number of deaths from influenza was greater than that from Covid-19.
Meanwhile, flu vaccine coverage remained low. By the end of August 2025, only 25.7 per cent of children aged six months to five years, 14.5 per cent of children aged five to 15 and 60.5 per cent of Australians aged over 65 had been vaccinated.
RACGP chief executive Michael Wright fears rising flu cases will strain hospitals and trigger further mobilization of ambulances if numbers continue to rise.
“Last year was a fear flu year. This has likely contributed to the increase in demand we see on our hospitals in 2025 and the resulting unacceptable ambulance increases when hospitals cannot cope,” Dr Wright said.
“Nobody wants to see this again. Not the parents, not the state and territory governments that run our public hospitals.”
This year, doctors are particularly concerned about a new, highly mutated strain of influenza A (H3N2) nicknamed “Super-K.”
First identified in the United States in June 2025, the strain has led to the deaths of dozens of children and has now been confirmed in Australia.
“More than 2,700 of the flu cases recorded in Australia this year were among babies and children under five, who are at higher risk of hospitalization and complications, whether they have pre-existing medical conditions or not,” Dr Wright said.
“All adults need to get a flu vaccine every year, but for young children, it’s very important.”
Many states now offer needle-free, intranasal flu vaccines for young children, providing the same protection as traditional vaccines in a painless spray.
In NSW, Queensland and South Australia, vaccines are available for children aged 2 to 5, while in Western Australia children aged 2 to 12 have access to the intranasal option.
“Intranasal vaccines provide the same protection as existing vaccines, but the needle is replaced by a painless spray,” Dr Wright said.
“It’s a smart way to protect children from serious infections that can have long-term health consequences.”
