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France recorded a 29.1% increase in deaths during the peak week of its record-breaking June heat wave, with an estimated 2,025 excess deaths compared with the previous week, according to Public Health France.
The public health agency said the increase occurred during the week beginning June 22 and warned that the figure is likely an underestimate as heat-related deaths continue to be assessed. Mortality in the Paris region rose by 62%, while a similar spike was recorded in the Pays de la Loire region.
France experienced an 11-day heat wave in June, with temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Celsius (104 degrees Fahrenheit) in several parts of the country, placing hospitals and emergency services under significant pressure.
As France prepares for another spell of extreme heat, around 1,000 air conditioners will be delivered to hospitals across the Paris region by the end of the week, BFM TV reported on Friday.
The deliveries are part of the government's nationwide plan to provide 30,000 air conditioning units to hospitals to improve their resilience against future heat waves.
Hospitals in the Paris region have already begun purchasing additional cooling units while awaiting government deliveries. Temperatures in some hospital rooms reached 32 degrees Celsius during last week's heat wave, prompting the Paris Public Hospital Network (AP-HP) to accelerate its purchases of cooling equipment.
"I think it's very important and really necessary to get through a second heatwave, especially if it comes in a short period of time," Emmanuel Raffoux, head of the hematology department at Saint-Louis Hospital, told BFM TV.
"Our bodies have suffered; they are trying to recover a little, and for the patients here, they will likely experience a second heatwave during the same hospital stay," he said.
The latest mortality figures have intensified political debate over France's preparedness for increasingly frequent extreme heat events. Opposition politicians, including members of the Green Party, have criticised the government's response and called for stronger climate adaptation measures.
The 2003 heat wave, which claimed around 15,000 lives, remains France's deadliest climate-related disaster. Health Minister Stephanie Rist said on Friday that the impact of this year's heat wave is not expected to reach the scale of the 2003 crisis, although officials anticipate the death toll will likely exceed that recorded during last year's summer heatwave.
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