Global social distancing rules targeting coronavirus have pushed influenza infection rates to a record low, early figures show, signaling that the measures are having an unprecedented impact on other communicable diseases.
In China, where the earliest wide-scale lockdown measures began, new reports of diseases including mumps, measles, and some sexually transmitted diseases, have declined significantly, though influenza cases have seen the sharpest drop-off.
Infections reported monthly by the county's health ministry have dropped by over 90% since the beginning of the lockdown, from an average of around 290,000 cases a month to 23,000.
Canada's flu surveillance system also reported "exceptionally low levels" of influenza in a recent report, as did other countries that report weekly flu surveillance statistics including the UK and Australia.