Health officials said on Monday that at least 22 people had died in Islamabad and Mardan from heat stroke due to the high heat that has been plaguing areas of Pakistan.
On June 24 (Saturday), 18 people in the city died from heatstroke, according to Dr. Tariq Mehmood, head of the Mardan Medical Complex. He also noted that majority of the victims were middle-aged or elderly ladies.
Last week, hot weather hit several cities across the country, and surprise electrical loadshedding just added insult to injury. Officials also report that at least four people have died from heatstroke in the nation’s capital during this time period.
In the meantime, the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences (PIMS) has refuted claims of a death at the health facility due to high heat, claiming that the district government had brought four individuals dead, most likely from heatstroke.
They assured visitors and patients that they were doing everything they could to make their stay as comfortable as possible.
At least four people died on Saturday, likely from heatstroke brought in by district administration to the hospital’s emergency room.
“We have complete evidence that these people were not alive when they were brought to the health facility,” Dr. Mubashir Daha, a spokesman for the PIMS, told.
He stated that last week the hospital treated and released over a dozen heatstroke patients who had come in from various parts of Islamabad.
After being asked about it, he replied that nine AC units had been put at the old emergency building of PIMS on Saturday, and that work was on to have the central cooling system up and running as soon as possible.
Alert for heat wave
Due to high pressure in the upper atmosphere, the Pakistan Meteorological Department (PMD) warned last week that heatwave-like conditions would persist in much of the country from June 20-24.
Due to high pressure in the upper atmosphere during the day, “temperatures are likely to increase gradually in most parts of the country during the period,” it had added.
Daytime temperatures are expected to stay 4 to 6 degrees Celsius above normal in the PMD’s upper and central Punjab, Islamabad, upper Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Kashmir forecast regions, and 2 to 4 degrees Celsius above normal in Sindh, South Punjab, and portions of Balochistan.
The weather service predicted that rising temperatures would lead to a surge in demand for both electricity and water, and it urged residents to save water whenever possible.
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