Hospitals on Alert As Government Issues Emergency Directives Amid Deadly Heatwave

New Delhi: The Union Health Ministry on Wednesday issued an advisory to central government-run hospitals to treat patients with heatstroke on priority. This comes after the cases of heatstroke spiked in several parts of north India due to scorching heatwave. In the past 72 hours, the heatwave in the national capital has claimed five lives and left twelve people in critical condition.

Delhi remains in the grip of a severe heatwave, with the maximum temperature feeling like 51 degrees Celsius according to the Meteorological Department.

According to Dr Ajay Shukla, Medical Superintendent of RML Hospital, 11 people were admitted to the hospital on Tuesday with heat stroke, the highest reported in a single day this season. He said that since the beginning of the heatwave about a month or so ago at least 45 people have been admitted with heat-related ailments till date.

“A total of 22 patients have been admitted to the hospital and five have lost their lives due to suspected heatstroke. 12 patients are on ventilators and in critical situation. The majority of patients are labourers who work in extreme conditions,” the hospital official said.

He also added that the main reason for the deaths was a delay in reaching the hospital. “So far we have received a total of 45-50 patients and around 7 people have died since the beginning of the heatwave situation,” he said.

“Most of the patients are poor migrant labourers. They do a lot of physical work so they are very prone to heatstroke. Most of the patients die because they are late in reaching the hospital. The mortality rate in this is 60-70 per cent. If treatment is delayed, the number of deaths can be quite high,” he added

The doctor said that most patients were middle-aged. “Most of them are labourers most of them are breadwinners of the family. This is one set of patients. The other set of patients are the neglected patients, the elderly who are in their house. Mostly they were on the top floor; they were not taking care of their hydration because of their elderly age,” said Dr Amlendu Yadav, HOD, Department of Emergency Medicine, RML Hospital.

Heat Wave in Delhi Pushes Peak Power Demand to All-time High Level of 8656 MW

Massive consumption of electricity amid a punishing heat wave sustaining over weeks pushed peak power demand of Delhi to an all-time high level of 8656 MW on Wednesday afternoon, said discom officials.

The peak power demand was on Tuesday recorded at 8647 MW, the second highest in this summer season.

According to the realtime data of State Load Dispatch Centre (SLDC) Delhi, the peak power demand reached 8656 MW at 15:06:55 hrs on Wednesday.

Delhi experienced the warmest night in 12 years on Tuesday with the minimum temperature settling at 35.2 degrees Celsius, over eight notches above the season’s normal, the weather office said.

The maximum temperature of the day is expected to be around 44 degrees Celsius.