Report of the National Influenza Surveillance Scheme, 2020–2021
Communicable Diseases Intelligence·
- DOI
- 10.33321/cdi.2026.50.021
- PMID
- —
- PMCID
- —
- OpenAlex
- —
- Study type
- Journal article
- Publisher
- Australian Centre for Disease Control
- Article type
- journal-article
- Integrity
- current
Why this research matters now
The report documents an unprecedented two-year suppression of influenza activity in Australia concurrent with COVID-19 PHSMs, providing a descriptive baseline relevant to understanding how non-pharmaceutical measures and pandemic-era conditions can shape seasonal influenza epidemiology.
Structured evidence summary
Research question
The report describes national influenza surveillance activity in Australia over the 2020–2021 period, with attention to how COVID-19 public health and social measures (PHSMs) influenced influenza notifications and circulation.
Study design
It is a national surveillance report drawing data from multiple sources constituting the Australian National Influenza Surveillance Scheme, including the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System and community sentinel surveillance systems.
Population and setting
The setting is Australia as a whole during 2020–2021, with notification data stratified by state/territory and by age group (notably 0–4 and 5–9 years in 2020).
Main findings
Influenza notifications in 2020 and 2021 were the lowest reported to the NNDSS since influenza became nationally notifiable in 2001, coinciding with PHSMs instituted for COVID-19. Notification rates varied between jurisdictions, and in 2020 were higher among children aged 0–4 and 5–9 years, whereas 2021 rates were very low across all age groups. Most notifications were influenza A (87% in 2020; 72% in 2021), with smaller proportions of influenza B (12.6% in 2020; 17.3% in 2021). Sentinel systems showed very low influenza activity overall, with small mid-June rises in influenza-like illness in both years, and very few sentinel hospital admissions or deaths.
Public-health relevance
The report documents an unprecedented two-year suppression of influenza activity in Australia concurrent with COVID-19 PHSMs, providing a descriptive baseline relevant to understanding how non-pharmaceutical measures and pandemic-era conditions can shape seasonal influenza epidemiology.
Important limitations
Limitations are not explicitly stated in the abstract. The summary is limited to the supplied single-article abstract and metadata and requires the original paper for decision-grade interpretation.
GIDS interpretation
Indexed under diseases (COVID-19, Influenza), country (Australia), and topic (Surveillance), the article is discoverable as a national-level Australian surveillance report covering influenza activity during the COVID-19 PHSM era of 2020–2021. No connection is made here to any live surveillance signal.
Related GIDS surveillance
Literature context does not validate, explain, or change a surveillance signal. Exact and contextual relationships are shown separately.
Evidence relationships
This article has 4 auditable classifier relationships to diseases, places, topics, and study design.