KARACHI: At least 850 people have died in the last four days as a result of a severe heatwave in Karachi, doctors and officials said Wednesday, with medics battling to treat patients as a state of emergency was declared in hospitals.
Temperature in the city will go up to 36 degree Celsius today as the heatwave is weakening, however, according to the Met Office, the chances of rain in Karachi have dropped to the bare minimum as the weather system developing in the Arabian sea has reached the Indian city of Gujrat instead.
Over 50 more people have died at the Jinnah Hospital today, according to the hospital spokesperson.
Doctor Zafar Ijaz at the Sindh Government Hospital, New Karachi, said that eight more people have lost their lives at the premises today.
At least six more people died today at the Liaquat National Hospital, according to the spokesperson.
The government has demanded urgent action to deal with the crisis, and the administration in Sindh province declared Wednesday a public holiday to encourage people to stay indoors out of the sun.
Some residents on Tuesday took to hosing each other down with water to avoid collapsing from heat stroke.
A state of emergency is in force in hospitals which are struggling to cope with the 3,000 people affected by heatstroke and dehydration.
The change in weather will come as welcome relief for the economic hub, where maximum temperatures have hovered around 44-45 degrees C since Saturday.
The National Disaster Management Authority has been setting up dedicated heatstroke treatment centres to try to cope with the volume of patients.
Blasting summer heat is not unusual in Pakistan, and some parts of the country regularly experience higher temperatures than those seen in Karachi this week, without serious loss of life.
But this year´s heatwave has coincided with the start of the Islamic fasting month of Ramazan, during which millions abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset.
The majority of the deaths in Karachi have been among the poor and manual labourers who work outdoors, prompting clerics to urge those at risk of heatstroke not to fast.
The situation has not been helped by power cuts -- a regular feature of life in Pakistan -- which have stopped fans and air conditioners from working.
Electricity shortages have crippled the water supply system in Karachi, hampering the pumping of millions of gallons of water to consumers, the state-run water utility said.
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