A pedestrian walks on the snow-covered street in southern London, Britain, Dec. 2, 2010. (Xinhua/Bimal Gautam)

LONDON, Nov. 22 (Xinhua) -- Figures released by the Office for National Statistics Wednesday revealed how deaths in England and Wales increased by more than 20 percent between winter and summer months.

Their provisional figures for the months between December and March show estimated 34,300 excess winter deaths in England and Wales, giving an excess mortality rate of 20.9 percent, the second highest level over the last five winter periods.

The peak for the higher death rate comes in January and is linked to victims of a dominant strain of influenza, coupled with lower than average weather temperatures.

On Jan. 9, 2017 alone, almost 2,000 in England and Wales died. That compares with the August summer holiday season when just over 1,200 people died each day.

Females and the elderly were most affected by excess winter mortality in the 2016 to 2017 winter period, with over one-third of all excess winter deaths caused by respiratory diseases in 2016 to 2017.

The figures also show that all of the English regions observed significant increases in the excess winter mortality index between winter periods of 2016 and 2017.

The town of Rossendale in northern England registered the highest number of winter deaths in 2017, with a level of 34.9 percent compared to deaths in summer months. In comparison, said ONS, Northampton had the lowest excess death level between winter and summer months of just 2 percent.

Jodie Withers, Health Analysis and Life Events at ONS, said: "While there has been an increase in excess winter deaths making the total the second highest over the last five winter periods, the number does not exceed the peak that was observed in the 2014 to 2015 winter period. The increase is likely due to the predominant strain of flu prevalent during the 2016 to 2017 winter which had greater impact on the elderly than the young."

The figure of more than 34,000 excess deaths last winter, is much lower than the extra number of people who died in the winter of 1950 in Britain when more than 100,000 people died above the average death rates.

Currently thousands of elderly and vulnerable people in Britain are being given flu vaccines to help protect them during the coming colder months.