New Zealand's low flu numbers for the past two years and the borders only just being reopened are some of the big reasons why the country is seeing an uptick in the number of illnesses this winter.
More Kiwis seem to be coughing, sniffling, and calling off work with illnesses including seasonal flu, gastro bugs, and conjunctivitis. That's despite COVID-19 numbers finally going down - Sunday's number of new community cases was the lowest since February.
Dr Nikki Turner, director of the Immunisation Advisory Centre at the University of Auckland, said there are a number of reasons New Zealand has some high illness numbers at the moment.
"One of them is because we had no flu at all for two years and so our community was not exposed to it. New Zealand just did not have flu," she told The Project on Monday.
"We opened our borders and the world brings it back in and because our immunity was a bit lower, we got bad flu, we got it on top of COVID.
"We're all pretty stressed - the world's an anxious place - so we have to add all of that into it, and it's just a mixture of all those factors."
While a small amount of stress can be good, Dr Turner said too much of it for too long can affect the immune system and cause it to not work properly.
Additionally, people being more aware that they're sick and taking appropriate precautions by staying home could also mean we're noticing more illnesses.
"That's a lot of the reason for why so many people are off work. I think we learnt our lesson the hard way that we should've stayed off work years ago when we've got respiratory illnesses and we didn't," Dr Turner said.
"You know that old tough stuff that you'll turn up to work still when you're blowing your nose and you're coughing away, well at least now we've learnt not to do that."
Dr Turner did have some positive news though. She said that internationally when there are COVID-19 waves, they get less severe each time as we build up immunity as a community. This immunity comes from both vaccinations and COVID-19 infections.
"We're going to see masses of cases still, but less severe," Dr Turner said.
"We'll be through the winter flu peak. Summer is coming and that makes a difference to all of us. There is hope for all of us. We are stressed but we're getting the hang of how to live with this."
Watch Dr Nikki Turner's full interview on The Project above.
