By Jessica Rowe
There's been an unusually severe outbreak of influenza in Canterbury, with numbers four times the national average and hospitals struggling to cope with the patient influx.
Doctors are putting it down to the severe cold and people living and working in close proximity in damaged buildings after the earthquake.
There are a lot of absentees at Central New Brighton primary.
Principal Toni Burnside says more than a third of the students and staff have been off sick this winter.
“I've sent ten children home a day. Classes have dropped from 22 to12. I have considered at one stage, ‘When do you shut a school?’ Because it was rampant,” she says.
Even the commissioners overseeing the Canterbury Earthquake Royal Commission are not immune. It's on hold until Monday.
“Commissioner Carter has succumbed to the flu or whatever it is, he's feverish and he's returning to Auckland,” says Justice Mark Cooper.
Christchurch hospital has treated 105 influenza patients this year, with 67 admitted in the last two weeks.
Virologist Lance Jennings says it's four times above the national average, and with the number of cases expected to rise in the coming weeks, he's advising Cantabrians it's still not too late to get a flu jab.
3 News