Whooping  Cough cases have spiked to their highest level this year

Health agencies say the country is the early stages of an epidemic and a national response is now in place.

ESR reporting shows there've been 263 cases in the past four weeks.

Otago University paediatrics professor, Peter McIntyre says that's still lower than spikes seen pre-covid.

He says the country's got used to low numbers of cases, which was also seen with RSV during the Covid pandemic.