School holidays set to supercharge spread of flu as WA cases hit over 10,000

The death of a child due to the highly infectious influenza has been recorded, as the Health Minister described this year’s flu season as the worst in a decade — and experts warned the school holidays will only supercharge the spread.

WA Health figures show there have been 10,428 recorded influenza infections so far this year, more than double the 4641 cases at the same time last year.

In June, there were 2948 flu cases compared to 1455 in the same month in 2024.

The flu has killed five people so far this year — one less than at the same time last year.

Two of those deaths were reported between June 8 and June 22 with the WA Department of Health confirming one was a child aged between 0 and 4 and the other was an adult aged between 85 and 89.

A further 1692 people had been admitted to hospital as of June 22 — more than 800 hospitalisations than the same time last year.

The alarming figures can be revealed after Health Minister Meredith Hammat claimed high rates of ambulance ramping were due to the worst flu season in a decade.

Ms Hammat pointed the finger as she was grilled in Budget Estimates on Tuesday about the number of hours ambulances were ramped at WA hospitals in May and June.

Ambulance crews spent 5336 hours waiting to transfer patients outside WA hospitals in May, the highest on record for that month.

In June, ambulances were ramped for a total of 5573 hours, with the length of time paramedics waited outside regional hospitals hitting its highest ever monthly record at 259 hours.

“There’s a variation across months, you referred to the May figures, but we are dealing with the worst flu season in 10 years,” Ms Hammat said.

“The context is important — the context of the ageing and growing population, the context of the worst flu season in 10 years. These are all factors that have an impact as well.”

Curtin University international health professor Jaya Dantas said she expected flu cases to increase further with public school holidays starting at the end of this week.

“The months of July and August are our winter months, so it gets colder, wetter and at the same time we have the school holidays — this all leads to an increase in infections,” she said.

“If there is a subsequent increase in emergency department presentations then it’s worrying because it means that it can actually have an impact on our health system.”

Australian Medical Association WA president Kyle Hoath said the State was in the middle of a “horror flu season”.

“The flu season is probably three or four weeks ahead of where we were this time last year, but we don’t see it ending sooner,” he said.

“It’s always hard to predict with the flu, but the likelihood is that cases will continue to rise and we will be in for a horror winter.

“The impact on the emergency departments, on our after hours and critical care clinics, and GPs is going to go through the roof over the next six to eight weeks.”

A WA Health spokeswoman urged the community to ensure their vaccinations were up-to-date during the upcoming school holidays to help prevent serious respiratory illness.

“There has been an upward trend in notifications of influenza, RSV and COVID-19, with more cases expected over the winter season,” the spokeswoman said.