London, Europe Brief News – UK Health Security Agency has issued a number of recommendations to avoid excess deaths in hot weather.
“It’s important to know in these exceptionally high temperatures everybody can be affected,” Prof Isabel Oliver said – “although of course the most vulnerable remain those in older age groups and with those long-term conditions.”
Downing Street has said it will hold talks over the weekend, with a meeting of the Cobra emergency committee to take place on Saturday afternoon.
Temperatures are forecast to hit 40C in England next week, prompting a national emergency to be declared and the UK’s first red extreme heat warning.
As well as the Met Office warning, the UKHSA issued its highest level four heat alert to health and care bodies – warning illness and death could occur “among the fit and healthy”.
Asked whether thousands of people could die in the hot weather – as some newspapers have reported – its chief scientific officer Prof Oliver declined to suggest a figure.
“It is very difficult to predict but I can tell you that we monitor this very closely and we assess it,” she told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.
“Last year we didn’t reach temperatures anywhere near the ones that are predicted for next week, [and] we saw over 1,600 excess deaths associated with the period of heatwave. So this is why we are keen that everybody knows what they can do to stay safe.”
Excess deaths is the term used for the number of deaths above the average normally seen for that time of year.
