Thousands of Australians have been struck down by a trifecta of nasty viruses in recent months, with influenza, Covid, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) cases surging across the country.

Deakin University epidemiologist Dr Catherine Bennett said the late-winter spike was driven by several factors, most notably that the 2025 flu season lasted much longer than usual, peaking from late June to mid-August before easing slowly in recent weeks.

‘The influenza season peaked later, so it’s taking a while to clear those infections,’ she told Daily Mail.

‘There are also other viruses going around. There are still people with Covid and the flu.

‘It’s due to a number of factors, including weather, behaviours, and travel.’

The good news is that infections are declining steadily overall as the weather warms up.

‘Viruses never go away altogether, but cases should start to drop off by the middle to the end of October,’ Australian National University epidemiologist Professor Peter Collignon said.

While new Covid strains are always developing worldwide, experts aren’t as concerned as they were several years ago.

‘There will always be a new strain every few months, but there’s nothing on the horizon to suggest that it will be any worse than what we’ve seen,’ Dr Collignon said.

‘We’re just as prone to lots of other virus out there than Covid.’

Aussies can lower the risk of infection by staying home if they develop cold and flu symptoms, and if they need to go out, keep a mask handy, particularly those with other health complications.

‘The flu is like any other illness – don’t mix with others while infectious to avoid spreading,’ Dr Bennett said.

Professor Collignon: ‘It’s the same advice we’ve given for five, 10, even 20 years.’

Aussies can also protect themselves with annual influenza vaccinations and Covid boosters in March or April ahead of the peak season.

However, vaccination rates are down, with some Aussies getting vaccine fatigue.

Nationally, fewer adults have received a Covid vaccine in the last 12 months compared to the previous year, according to the Australian Respiratory Surveillance Report.

Influenza vaccine coverage is 30.5 per cent, lower than at the same time in 2023 or 2022.

Of the 77,956 cases of influenza recorded across Queensland in 2025, 84 per cent were not vaccinated.

Dr Philip Britton, an infectious diseases physician at The Children’s Hospital at Westmead, said he believed a combination of vaccine fatigue ‘coming out of the pandemic’ and complacency over the flu also meant many parents weren’t taking up the opportunity.

‘That might be the case for some people, but as a doctor who works in a hospital, it is tragic to see children end up in intensive care … with a preventable infection.’

Since late June, GP visits for flu-like symptoms have been running well above the five-year average, according to the Australian Respiratory Surveillance Report.

The most recent update (September 8–21) shows cases are finally easing, but levels are still higher than in previous years.

The virus remains a serious threat, particularly in Queensland, where 2,706 new infections were reported in just one week to September 26.

In NSW, flu levels have eased from ‘high’ to ‘moderate’—though more than 4,000 fresh cases were still logged in the latest reporting week.

The common cold has also seen a recent spike, with 6,334 people struck down in the week to September 20 in NSW alone.