Authorities want people to roll up their sleeves for a flu jab after a second child's suspected influenza death.

An 11-year-old girl died last Thursday on Queensland's Sunshine Coast after contracting the flu, which followed reports of the death of a student on the NSW Central Coast.

The girl had attended a private hospital ahead of her death.

Queensland Health Minister Shannon Fentiman confirmed the coroner would investigate the circumstances surrounding the Sunshine Coast girl's "heartbreaking" death, and reiterated the dangers flu posed to children.

"The chief health officer made some comments yesterday and I really want to echo his comments about how serious influenza can be for children," she told reporters in Cairns on Thursday.

"Since the first of July, we have seen 78 children hospitalised with influenza but only one of them was vaccinated.

"So please, please, please, if you are not vaccinated, please get vaccinated."

The minister's comments followed concerns by Chief Health Officer John Gerrard and the Australian Medical Association about the state's rising flu cases, especially among children.

Dr Gerrard said the state had experienced an influenza A wave leading into winter, but influenza B had taken over as the dominant strain in July.

"There have been three times more hospital admissions for influenza B than influenza A in children aged less than five years," Dr Gerrard said.

AMA Queensland president Maria Boulton warned the state was "losing the battle" when it came to the number of people vaccinated against the flu, especially among the young.

"We're seeing way too many people end up in hospital emergency departments and even be admitted to intensive care units with severe flu," Dr Boulton told Nine's Today show.

Dr Boulton attributed the flu's danger to children to their lower immunity following the years of COVID-19 restrictions along with lower vaccination rates.

"The age group between five and nine, only about 13 per cent of kids in that age group have been vaccinated. We need to do better," she said.

Flu vaccinations across Australia between March and July 2023 have dropped almost 18 per cent compared with the same period in 2022, according to the Australian Immunisation Register.

South Australia has seen a 20 per cent decline, NSW 19.5 per cent, Victoria 18.9 per cent and Queensland 18.6 per cent.

As of June 25, there had been 1236 flu hospitalisations in Australia from when seasonal monitoring began in April, according to the National Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System.

There have been 107 deaths in the year to date.