Is social distancing due to COVID-19 getting you down? Take heart: your hard work to flatten the curve is also having a positive effect on other flu-like illnesses.

Early data from the FluTracking survey, which asks respondents simple questions about cough and fever symptoms every week, suggests that the incidence of those symptoms plummeted after physical distancing measures were introduced in Australia from mid-March.

Flu-like symptoms fell from a peak of 1.6 per cent to a low of 0.3 per cent.

The incidence of these symptoms in the community at the same time last year was 1.8 per cent. That's a difference of 1.5 percentage points (83.3 per cent) and represents a historic low for the survey.

"The social distancing the community has taken up leads to fewer opportunities to transmit viruses between people, so few people are infected and fewer people get sick," said the survey's coordinator, public health physician Craig Dalton.

"The rapid social distancing by the general community may have averted a public health disaster."

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But there's a potential downside to all of this reduced infection, and that's a hit to herd immunity for seasonal flus. Dr Dalton likens it to prescribed burning in bushfires.

"A useful metaphor is fuel for bushfires — if you build the number of susceptibles to a high enough level then you can get a larger epidemic at a later stage," he said.

"So it is possible that lower rates this year can lead to higher rates next year. However, permanent changes in social distancing may reset the transmission rates to a lower level."

Survey tracks COVID-19 cases too

The FluTracking survey normally begins in April — at the beginning of the flu season — and ends around October, but started early this year and had extra coronavirus-related questions added to track the spread of COVID-19.

FluTracking receives more than 60,000 responses a week. Forty-three people in the past two surveys combined reported that they have tested positive for COVID-19. Some of those infected did not report symptoms of cough and fever:

Only 10 (23.3 per cent) of those who tested positive for COVID-19 reported a fever.

Only 10 (23.3 per cent) of those who tested positive for COVID-19 reported a fever. Nineteen (44.2 per cent) reported a cough.

Nineteen (44.2 per cent) reported a cough. Thirteen (30.2 per cent) indicated that they had experienced a loss of sense of smell and taste.

Early studies have identified loss of smell as a symptom of COVID-19, though it may not be present in every infected person.

If you live in Australia or New Zealand and you'd like to be a part of the survey, you can sign up on the FluTracking website.