An amber Cold-Health alert has been issued for the whole of England where ‘a rise in deaths’ is expected.
The alert is in place for all of England from today, 2 January 2025 at 12:00 pm to next Thursday, 8 January 2025 at noon.
The weather is expected to have significant impacts across health and social care services, including:
Today we have updated our cold health alert to amber for the whole of England, from today at 12pm to Wed 8 Jan at 12pm. ❄❄❄
Our data dashboard includes a cold health alert map with useful information and guidance: https://t.co/eioXiEMnUL pic.twitter.com/3JKmS8bKPz
— UK Health Security Agency (@UKHSA) January 2, 2025
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a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions. We may also see impacts on younger age groups
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a likely increase in demand for health services
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temperatures inside places like hospitals, care homes, and clinics dropping below the levels recommended for assessing health risks
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challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18°C leading to more risk to vulnerable people
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staffing issues due to external factors (such as travel delays)
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other sectors starting to observe impacts (such as transport and energy)
Cold health alerts
The alerting system provides an early warning when adverse temperatures are likely to impact the health and well-being of the population.
The Weather health alerting system is provided by the UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) in partnership with the Met Office.
It’s intended to provide early warning to the health and social care sector, the responder community, the voluntary and community sector and government departments when adverse temperatures are likely to impact on the health and well-being of the population.
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The Weather health alerting system comprises the Heat-Health Alerts (HHA) and Cold-Health Alerts (CHA). The Weather health alerting system underpins the Adverse Weather and Health Plan.
The Cold-Health alerting systems’ core alerting seasons run from 1 November to 31 March each year.
However, an extraordinary alert will be issued if an episode of cold occurs outside of this core period.