Look for Drop Soon in Influenza Cases

• Municipal Health Commissioner William C. Woodward reiterated the need to avoid crowds and walk to and from work whenever possible to reduce the danger of spreading influenza• He expressed hope that the high mark in the epidemic has been reached, adding his belief that there are hundreds of cases in the city that have not been reported by physicians, despite being ordered to do so• State and local health authorities regard the situation as serious, but believe that improvement will be seen in the next few days as the crowding of the holidays passes• The last three days have shown indications of the seriousness of the situation• Of the 733 new cases reported to 9 a.m. yesterday for Tuesday and Christmas Day, 316 were reported Wed. 417 yesterday, an increase of 101 for the 24 hours• Influenza deaths reported Wed a.m. were 11 and yesterday 12. Deaths between 9 a.m and 9 p.m. yesterday were 23, more than twice as many as the day before• Yesterday’s death toll was the second highest since the return of the epidemic, having been exceeded by 4 or 5 early this week• Wed morning 11 pneumonia cases and 6 deaths reported and yesterday 7 new cases and 8 deaths• 6 pneumonia deaths reported yesterday for the 13 hours ending at 9 p.m.• total deaths for both diseases for the past three days was 46• A serious phase of the epidemic is the growing scarcity of coffins. Any special design requires at least 36 hours for delivery• Undertakers have begun to use store samples and many who had stocked up since the last epidemic find themselves near the vanishing pointNewspaper article1