ISLAMABAD (GNP): European countries recorded more than 10,000 excess deaths during the record-breaking heatwave that struck the western part of the continent in late June, according to official mortality data, with the overwhelming majority of those deaths among people aged 65 and older.
The figures come from EuroMOMO, a mortality-monitoring network backed by the European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and the World Health Organization, which pools weekly mortality statistics from 27 European countries. More than 9,000 of the excess deaths were recorded among the elderly population, the group most vulnerable to extreme heat, which can trigger fatal heat stroke or worsen existing cardiovascular and respiratory conditions.
Excess deaths climbed to 10,650 in the week of June 22 to 28, the week the heatwave peaked across France, Spain, Britain and other countries. Lasse Vestergaard, chief physician at Denmark’s Statens Serum Institut, which hosts EuroMOMO, described the scale of the spike as unusual for the time of year, saying it was difficult to attribute the surge to anything other than the extreme heat.
Scientists cited in the data noted no other major contributing factors, such as a COVID-19 outbreak, that could account for the increase. By contrast, mortality across the same countries had run roughly 500 deaths per week below typical levels over the preceding eight weeks, underlining how sharply the heatwave reversed that trend.
Belgium and France were hit hardest
EuroMOMO does not break out excess deaths by individual country, but it identified France and Belgium as the only two countries in Europe to record “very high excess” mortality in the final week of June.
Belgium’s national public health institute, Sciensano, said the country’s excess mortality during the heatwave was the highest recorded during any heatwave since its records began in 2000.
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Climate Change Link
Scientists have said the late-June heatwave would have been virtually impossible without human-caused climate change, which is increasing both the frequency and intensity of extreme heat events. A separate study published this week by researchers at Imperial College London, the UK Met Office and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine estimated that 2,700 people died from heat-related causes in England and Wales alone during the May and June heatwaves, attributing 42 percent of those deaths specifically to the additional heat driven by global warming.
Beyond the human toll, the heatwave disrupted power supplies, forced school closures, and broke temperature records in France, Spain and the United Kingdom. EuroMOMO cautioned that the excess mortality figures could still be revised as further data is reported by member countries in the coming weeks.
