Cold health alert issued for North West as freeze continues
Forecast cold weather over the next week is expected to have severe impacts across health and social care services.
The alert is in place from 12pm today (January 2) until the same time on Wednesday, January 8.
Weather is expected to have big impacts on services including:
- a rise in deaths, particularly among those aged 65 and over or with health conditions
- a likely increase in demand for health services
- temperatures inside places like hospitals, care homes, and clinics dropping below the levels recommended for assessing health risks
- challenges keeping indoor temperatures at the recommended 18°C leading to more risk to vulnerable people
- staffing issues due to external factors (such as travel delays)
- other sectors starting to observe impacts such as transport and energy
The Met Office currently has a number of weather warnings in place for the North West, including Blackburn with Darwen.
A yellow warning for ice was in place last night and ended at 10am today (January 2), however a fresh warning for ice is set to be imposed later today until tomorrow morning (January 3).
A further yellow warning for snow is set to come into effect on Saturday (January 4) until Monday, January 6.
