New Zealand's flu season appears to have crested, with hospital admissions falling for the first time in weeks — a small but meaningful signal that the worst of an unusually aggressive influenza A outbreak may be receding. Yet the numbers carry a warning within the relief: infection rates remain 40 percent higher than last year's peak, and a health system under sustained pressure cannot yet rest. As temperatures begin to rise and the virus exhausts its available hosts, the season follows a familiar human rhythm — not a sudden end, but a slow, uneven loosening of winter's grip.
Flu hospitalisations fall but infection rates remain dangerously high
Flu hospitalisation rates remain elevated, straining the health service, though specific casualty figures are not provided.