China discloses first heat-stroke fatalities amid record temperatures

BEIJING: At least two people have died from heat-stroke in one Chinese city, and many more have fallen ill, as temperatures hovered around 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) for the eighth day on the eastern seaboard.

Over the next three days, most areas south of the Yangtze River, which empties into the sea in Shanghai, are expected to bake in 37C-39C heat, with temperatures in parts of Anhui, Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces exceeding 40C, forecasters said on Thursday.

After sweltering in its hottest July in observed modern history, China has been hit by extreme heat, particularly in the east and south of the country. Zhejiang’s provincial capital Hangzhou recorded a 41.9C historical high on Aug 3.

Emergency services in Shenzhen, a city of 18 million people in Guangdong province, said it had made 88 emergency house calls due to heat-related illnesses from Aug. 1-6.

Two men, one in his 50s and the other in his 60s, later died, according to a statement released late on Wednesday.

China does not give a tally of heat-related deaths, although domestic media occasionally report fatalities, citing local authorities.

In 2022, China was hit by the worst heat waves since 1961, with many parts of the country enduring a 79-day hot spell from June 13 to Aug 30. No official death tally has been disclosed.

China’s Ministry of Emergency Management said 554 people died or went missing that year “due to natural disasters”.

Heat-related deaths can be hard to categorise, as a fatality owing to a heat-stroke could be classified differently if the cause of death was a heart attack or organ failure.

In a 2023 report published in the medical journal The Lancet, heat wave-related mortality in China was estimated at 50,900 deaths in 2022, doubling from 2021.