It is unclear whether Mayor Bloomberg finally succumbed to the flu he was battling before Christmas or hightailed it out of town, but for two days reporters in City Hall have seen neither hide nor hair of him.

“Like a lot of people do over the holiday season, he took a few days off,” the mayor’s spokesman, Ed Skyler, said. “I hope he is feeling better, because the next few days are going to be busy.”

Mr. Skyler declined to elaborate and wouldn’t say whether the mayor was resting at his Upper East Side townhouse or at one of his other houses at Bermuda, London, and Vail, Colo.

Ever since Mr. Bloomberg came into office, the question of what the mayor is up to when the public doesn’t see him has been the subject of perennial tension between his press operation and the reporters who cover him.

Mr. Bloomberg, who has a private jet that can get him into and out of New York at turbo speed, has been steadfast about keeping his private time private. This summer, when asked if he planned to take a summer holiday, Mr. Bloomberg said there was too much going on and he might take some time this winter. It is unclear whether he availed himself of that opportunity Monday and yesterday.

The 62-year-old mayor has quietly taken a handful of short weekend trips during his nearly three years in office. Speculation as to whether he was in town began swirling yesterday when there had been no immediate comment from the mayor about the undersea earthquake Sunday and the tens of thousands of people killed in South Asia and East Africa. He finally came out with a written statement yesterday afternoon telling New Yorkers how they might help.

Mr. Bloomberg has tried to politically inoculate himself from his secretive departures by having his aides say that 80% of respondents in New York polls have said the mayor is entitled to some privacy about his personal life.

As for another sort of inoculation, the mayor did not have a flu shot this fall.