France has recorded 1,000 excess deaths during the blistering heatwave sweeping Europe, the public health agency said on Sunday, warning that the true figure was likely to be higher.
Detailing its preliminary count of excess deaths, Sante Publique said most of the fatalities involved older people and that it expected the mortality rate to rise as more information became available about deaths in residential care and homes.
Europeans have been enduring blistering conditions during a heatwave that has been linked to dozens of deaths – shattering records, disrupting power generation and damaging infrastructure.
Scientists have said the heatwave, which began on June 20, was the worst recorded in Europe, where the climate is changing faster than the global average.
EXTREME HEAT EASES IN FRANCE
The heatwave has been moving east. But while France’s weather agency said the extreme heat had diminished in most parts of the country, some areas in the northeast were still under a heatwave advisory.
Health Minister Stephanie Rist told La Tribune newspaper that the impact of the heatwave could linger for as long as 10 days after the weather had ebbed.
“The episode is not finished,” she told broadcaster BFM.
Most of the deaths involved people aged 65 and older, though the health effects of the extreme heat affected all categories of the population, Sante Publique said.
The Tribune, now published from Chandigarh, started publication on February 2, 1881, in Lahore (now in Pakistan). It was started by Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia, a public-spirited philanthropist, and is run by a trust comprising five eminent persons as trustees.
The Tribune, the largest selling English daily in North India, publishes news and views without any bias or prejudice of any kind. Restraint and moderation, rather than agitational language and partisanship, are the hallmarks of the newspaper. It is an independent newspaper in the real sense of the term.
The Tribune has two sister publications, Punjabi Tribune (in Punjabi) and Dainik Tribune (in Hindi).
Remembering Sardar Dyal Singh Majithia
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