The cold and flu season is upon us, but the region appears to be holding up well.
Public Health South medical officer of health Dr Marion Poore said it was "pretty early in the season and it's really business as usual".
"We are not seeing a winter upswing in terms of influenza-type illness and that's the same throughout the country," she said.
She did not expect to see any increase in illness until next month.
Mornington Health Centre nursing supervisor Liz Medlin said the centre had not been especially busy.
"I don't think it's any worse than any other winter," she said.
In the past couple of weeks respiratory infections had "picked up", but "we are certainly not seeing any flu yet".
Central Medical registered nurse Kirsten Hare, of Oamaru, said the medical centre has seen a "steady" flow of patients, and although there were "a lot" of coughs going around, there had been no marked increase in patient numbers.
Otago Primary Principals' Association president and Wakari School principal Brent Caldwell said the region's pool of relief teachers had "not been excessively overused", and his school had been "reasonably quiet" in terms of absences due to illness.
Kavanagh College principal Tracy O'Brien said the school was not experiencing anything out of the ordinary.
"I've not noticed any major increase due to flus. It's probably at about normal levels," he said.
Bayfield High School principal Judith Forbes said there had been "a few sore throats, coughs and headaches", but absenteeism had been low.
Waitaki Boys' High School attendance officer Lyn Bond said the number of absentee days at the school had increased only slightly.
"They are a little bit higher than average, although we have had pupils staying off for two to three days at a time, rather than just the one."
Wakatipu schools had experienced similar levels of pupil absences due to sickness as they had in other years.
Queenstown Primary School has had about "the usual number" of sick days among pupils and staff members due to a variety of colds, flu and stomach bugs.
Kingsview Primary School principal Rebekah Key said winter sickness was always a challenge and often interrupted learning programmes but term two had brought nothing out of the ordinary.
"This year, we have had a great start to the season.
"We have been encouraging parents to keep pupils at home until they are well enough to return to school.
"This has significantly minimised the spread of sickness throughout the school, and we have only had several pupils away for short periods."
Absences at the high school were not abnormal for this time of year and there had been no noticeable "patterns of sickness".
Remarkables Primary School principal Debbie Dickson also said there had not been any more sick days taken than usual but they presently had a few pupils off school with stomach aches and other typical winter complaints.
"Two to three weeks ago we had a number of staff away with the flu but everyone is back on board now.
"Our absences are up a little more over this last week than in the past four weeks, due to flu and people on holiday."
