Almost three times as many people died in the EU from the heat last summer as from the coronavirus a year earlier

(ORDO NEWS) — Extremely high temperatures in European countries are causing more and more concerns among doctors and scientists.

In July 2022, excess deaths in the European Union reached an annual high due to record heat. According to the EU statistics agency Eurostat, the figure was 16% of the annual average, according to Reuters.

According to experts, 53,000 more people died in European countries in the middle of summer than in the same period of 2016-2019.

“Based on available information, some increase in mortality in July 2022 compared to the same month of the last two years may be due to heat waves that affected parts of Europe during the reporting period,” Eurostat said in a statement.

For comparison, in July 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic, the death rate increased by 3%, and in July 2021 by 6%.

The highest number of premature deaths was observed in Spain and Cyprus, where 37% and 33% more people died, respectively.

Spain experienced its earliest heatwave in 40 years in July 2022. In some regions of the country at this time the temperature exceeded 40°C.

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