Smokers more at risk from coronavirus warns Blackpool health chief

Around one in five adults in the resort are smokers, and the town’s director of public health Dr Arif Rajpura says now is the time to give up.

He said: “At this moment in time, people who smoke is something we are worrying about.

“People need to think about giving up smoking because it is an important way to reduce the risk from Covid-19.

“There is no better time to do it. People think about the long-term effects of smoking but there is an immediate benefit from giving up because Covid-19 is a lung infection.”

Dr Rajpura said smokers are twice as likely as non-smokers to suffer from pneumonia, and five times as likely to catch any type of flu.

While the number of smokers in Blackpool has decreased in recent years, the level is still above the national average.

Public Health England figures for 2018 show 21 per cent of adults in Blackpool smoke, down from 28 per cent in 2011, but above the national average of just over 14 per cent.