Beast from the East blamed for higher winter death rate

THE Beast from the East weather storm and “uncharacteristically cold spells” saw the winter death toll reach a fiveyear high, new figures show.

There were 153,717 deaths registered in England between January and March, according to the Office for National Statistics (ONS).

More deaths occurred on almost every day between January and March compared with the five-year average, the statistics showed.

The finding is possibly due to a combination of flu and “uncharacteristically cold spells” in February and March, officials said.

A combination of the weather systems nicknamed the Beast from the East and Storm Emma led to bitterly cold weather across the UK. Both February and March were colder than average, with a particularly cold snap occurring between Feb 22 and March 3. The ONS data shows that deaths began to climb well above the five-year average and remained high for almost two weeks after temperatures began to rise. Overall there were 153,717 deaths registered in England in the first quarter of the year. This compares with 132,409 deaths in 2013, 123,068 in 2014, 145,570 in 2015, 132,728 in 2016 and 144,087 in 2017.

The ONS said that had the mortality rate had been the same as the average rate in the first quarter of 2013 to 2017, it would have expected to see 142,946 deaths. “If these average mortality rates had continued, we would have expected to see 10,771 fewer deaths in quarter one 2018 than were actually registered,” officials wrote.