FIGURES of absenteeism received from schools and factories in Redditch district yesterday suggest that one of the most severe influenza epidemics in years has already reached its peak and is now on the decline.

A schools official said yesterday that the number of children away from school was beginning to show a slight decrease compared with the numbers which were absent earlier in the week.

On Monday 40 per cent of the school population was down with flu, and by the following day it appeared to reach its peak when about 41 per cent of the children were absent.

By Wednesday it had dropped to 40 per cent again, and figures coming in from the various schools yesterday again showed a slight decrease.