The Illawarra is in the midst of its worst month on record for influenza cases, which have shot past 2500 for the month of June with nine days to go.
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The previous record for monthly case numbers was 2362 in August 2017, but this June's tally is already 2569.
Local cases have also already topped the yearly total from 2019 with six months of the year to go, and are fast approaching 2017's annual record of 4883 cases.
NSW Health's most recent Respiratory Surveillance report shows that 1,029 of this month's influenza cases were contracted in one week (week ending June 11).
This is still considerably less than the number of COVID-19 cases circulating in the region, with 2,488 people testing positive to coronavirus in that week.
32 people in the region were hospitalised with COVID-19 in that time, and there were nine deaths, which is the highest weekly death toll for several months.
Statewide, there have been 80 deaths from COVID-19 in the latest reported week.
Additionally, the respiratory surveillance report shows there are thousands of cases of respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) being detected in the state (2,252 cases in the week ending June 11).
This has meant emergency department presentations for bronchiolitis, which is a clinical diagnosis of infants usually associated with RSV, also increased, with 621 presentations for bronchiolitis this week in children aged 0-4 years, up from 519 presentations in the previous week.
Of these presentations, 43 per cent were admitted to hospital, NSW Health said.
Bulli GP Julie Blaze, who runs a daily respiratory clinic, said the flu season was "not shaping up to be a good year" and advised people to get their flu shots as influenza can be a severe illness for people of all ages.
She said parents of small children, who can become seriously ill, should watch out for a persistent fever or one that did not come down with medication.
"Or if a child is not behaving like their normal self or struggling to breathe, those would be red flags," she said.
"If you are concerned, there is a health direct line you can ring which is open 24 hours, or you should head to your own GP. And then of course, there is the emergency department but at the moment, you would ideally save that for the very serious illnesses."
"For anyone, it is also not too late to get vaccinated, and what that does is modify the severity of the illness."
The government is offering free flu shots for everyone over six months old until the end of June.
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