Public Health France said in a new report there had been “an increase of 29.1 percent, corresponding to 2,025 additional deaths compared with the previous week” while noting that the figure was probably “an underestimate”. The number of deaths increased by 62 percent in the Paris region during the week starting June 22nd, the report said. A similar spike has been reported in the Pays de la Loire region. Full excess figures for the country will be released later in the month. Some French politicians
have denounced what they call the authorities’ inadequate measures to help France face rising temperatures. The Greens on Thursday filed a no-confidence motion against the government of Sébastien Lecornu. In June, France experienced a record-breaking heatwave which lasted around 11 days and saw temperatures climb above 40C in many places. There were also repeated ‘tropical nights’, where the temperature never falls below 20C, these are considered especially dangerous to health as the body never gets the chance to cool itself. Around 15,000 people died in
France during a severe heatwave in 2003, with many elderly people dying in nursing homes. The June heatwave is considered more intense, but authorities say its consequences have been less severe. “It will probably not be comparable,” Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Friday. Nicolas Revel, director general of the Paris public hospital system, has said he expected the death toll from the June heatwave to be lower than that of 2003, but “probably” higher than an episode last year that claimed 5,700 lives. Another
heatwave is forecast to hit the country from the weekend – the third heatwave of the summer so far – although Météo France says that it will probably be less intense and shorter than the June one.
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