Flu ‘likely back to normal’ after last year’s strange season: Aussie expert

The looming flu season will likely be shorter and quieter than last year’s “unusual” seven-month season, a leading Australian expert says.

Professor Ian Barr says the 2026 flu season has started predictably, suggesting that more standard seasons are returning, several years on from the COVID-19 pandemic.

Doctors reported just 23,500 lab-confirmed influenza cases between January and 23 March 2026, compared with more than 48,000 in the first quarter of 2025.

“It would be very unusual to have two huge years in a row — and lasting that long,” said Professor Barr, the deputy director of the WHO Collaborating Centre for Reference and Research on Influenza.

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