Thank you for the opportunity to review the paper.
The authors cover an important topic on changes in epidemiology of RSV following a period of lock down in New Zealand and they compared transmission of RSV and the incidence of RSV-associated hospitalization during the 2 years after border closure to pre COVID-19 period (2018-2019).
They report a complete disruption of RSV transmission in 2020 following the implementation of border closures, followed by a sharp increase and a higher peak of RSV-associated admissions during the 1st year after opening the borders with RSV transmission returning to pre-COVID pattern in 2022. They report that changes varied by ethnic and SES group.
Major comments
Adding more description on methods and/formula for calculating the incidence and rates would be useful
There are a number of errors in calculations / data presented in the tables especially table 2 and to some extent in Table 1 and this impacts on some of the interpretation and discussion presented.
In the abstract, last sentence in paragraph 2, mentions that the increase observed in 2022 in hospitalization rates was significant in one ethnic group and one socioeconomic group (quintile2). However the IR values presented in table 2 for 2022 reflect an increase in all ethnic and SE groups. In addition the values included for IRR (SES and ethnic groups) need to be reviewed.

Abstract
Line 8- suggest leave out widely
Line 15 add “of” after opening
Line 39 and line 43- the increase was instead of the increase were
Background
Line 14-Full word for COVID-19 is Coronavirus Diseases 2019.
Second sentence of the second paragraph- missing text “consistently peaking ……….. in temperate northern hemisphere.
Methods
Please add references for surveillance platforms referred to in first sentence of methods.
Please provide more detail on methods for calculating hospitalization rates, what was used as a denominator. A formula here would be useful and as a footnote in table 2.
Line 56-define NZDep2018
Results
3.1- suggest add “associated”
Figure 1: please add axis labels
Adding detection rate on the graph will help with the interpretation
Throughout the results, I suggest the authors use RSV-associated SARI vs RSV specific SARI
Section 3.2
First sentence- the first line refers to RSV-SARI hospitalisations being more than 3 times greater than total RSV hospitalizations in 2018-2019. Whereas in table 1 data presented reflects 255 and 423 RSV associated hospitalizations in 2018-2019 and 2021 respectively and the detection rate in 2021 was ~ 3x greater (51% vs 17.9%) than in 2018-2019.
Section 3.3- RSV hospitalization patterns
As mentioned earlier under methods, clearer explanation of how rates were calculated would be useful.
Line 13 (3rd sentence) in 1st paragraph, the data on ethnic groups and SES presented in table 2 does not fully support the statement presented here.
The data in second paragraph on changes in IR for age groups needs review, IR for age 5-19 years should be 15,2 instead of 16.8 and 19.3 for 20-49 for 20-49 should be 19,3 vs 18,7
The data in table 2 on SES and ethnic group for 2022 needs review and the changes to reflect in results presented in this section. In addition the increase in IR in quintile 2 does not look correct.
Table 2
Title- suggest change to “RSV-associated vs RSV related”
Please review the data and calculations presented in this table.
Footnote refers to NZ Dep 2013- in other tables reference is made to NZ Dep2018.
In column reflecting data for 2021, IR has ** which reflects as incidence rate ratio ?
3.4
The end of the 3rd sentence in the second paragraph is repeated.
In paragraph 3 - authors refer to all 3 time periods, the highest risk of RSV infection was observed among individuals in quintile 4. However, the data on table 3 highest values are in quintile 5.
Figure 2:
Title inside graph refers to period 2018-2022. Whereas in the figure data is from 2018.
Add axis titles
Description of * not included
Discussion
Try not to repeat the results.
Revise discussion based on updated results.
First sentence under strengths- not clear whether authors refer to global data or in NZ. Authors mention that they were not able to establish whether COVID-19 effects impacted the rates of hospitalization. This is a limitation and would be good if authors could expand on how this would impact their results.
Unanswered questions
Page 21, line 38-line 40- suggest change fold to times. Also need to check if values are correct.
Page 22, line 41-43, “see” seems out of context.
Page 22, line 55, add “in” after more