THE rate of people reporting symptoms of cold and flu has plummeted to "historically low" levels since more stringent social distancing measures were implemented in mid-to-late March.
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Coordinator of FluTracking, Dr Craig Dalton, said social distancing had decreased the transmission of many different types of respiratory virus, and the rate of people with cough and fever had dropped "dramatically".
"The social distancing the community has taken up leads to less opportunities to transmit virus between people, so few people are infected and fewer people get sick," Dr Dalton said.
"The rapid social distancing by the general community may have averted a public health disaster. We mustn't relax our vigilance, but these initial findings are early reassuring signs that social distancing is working. We have to continue with strong social distancing measures and aggressive case identification, contact tracing and isolation as well."
Dr Dalton said the national influenza laboratory counts for March were 11,159 in 2019, compared to 5435 in 2020.
Dr Dalton said there were "pretty typical" cough and fever rates earlier this year.
But the numbers dropped dramatically following the cancellation of large gatherings and restrictions on social venues.
"This suggests social distancing is working and it is effecting all causes of cough and fever. This means it is actually decreasing the rates of all respiratory infections in the community," he said.
"COVID is very infectious, and we shouldn't relax. We need to continue that important social distancing because it could bounce right back up again if we relax it at this point."
Numbers of participants in the FluTracking.net survey have surged in response to COVID-19 in Australia. Approximately 5000 new people had joined the survey in the past two weeks, and more than 60,000 responses were being received each week. Results from the past two weeks recorded 48 people who had received a positive test to COVID-19.
Of those, 13 (27 per cent) reported a change in their taste or smell - a new emerging symptom of COVID-19.
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