◉➤ More than 10,000 people died in Europe in a heatwave in late June, according to a report by Europe-based organization Euromonitor International on Sunday (July 12).
Euromomo is a survey organization run by the European Union (EU), an alliance of 27 European countries, and the World Health Organization (WTO), the United Nations’ global health security agency.
The agency said in a report on Sunday (July 12) that the 10,000 deaths in 27 EU countries were caused by an eight-day heat wave from June 20 to 28. Of the dead, nearly 9,000 were aged 65 or over.
Lasse Vestergaard, one of the EuroMoma officials and chief physician at the Statens Serum Institute in Denmark, said that most of the dead died of ‘heat stroke’ or heat-related cardio-respiratory failure.
“They died due to the extreme heat caused by the heat wave. There is no other explanation for this. This death toll is really high and it is not normal for so many deaths in such a short period of time at this time of year,” he told Reuters.
The Euromonitor report did not specifically mention how many deaths occurred in which EU country, but it said that a large portion of these deaths were in France and Belgium.
Government data shows that heat and heatwaves are killing an average of 500 people per week in several EU countries combined. This has been going on for the past 8 weeks.
According to records from the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control (ECDPC), the European Union’s disease control and prevention agency, Europe recorded its highest single-week death toll during the coronavirus pandemic. At the peak of the pandemic in May-June 2020, Europe saw more than 1,650 deaths in a single week.
European scientists have said that human-caused climate change is to blame for the June heatwave and that there is a risk that such heatwaves will return again in the coming years.
