Karachi - The death toll from Pakistan's killer heat wave rose past 1,000 on Thursday, with more fatalities expected, as cloud cover and lower temperatures brought some relief to the worst-hit city Karachi.
Mortuaries and gravediggers in Karachi, Pakistan's largest city and economic hub, have struggled to keep up with the flow of bodies since the scorching temperatures began last weekend.
Hospitals have been on a crisis footing and dedicated heatstroke treatment centres have been set up around the city to treat the tens of thousands affected by heatstroke and dehydration.
"The death toll is more than 1,000 and it may reach up to 1,500," Anwar Kazmi, a spokesman for the Edhi Foundation, Pakistan's largest welfare charity and a leading provider of emergency medical care in Karachi, told AFP.
According to figures collected by AFP from hospitals around the city, a total of 1,079 people have died, though the pace of the deaths has slowed as the weather has cooled in the last two days.
Karachi hospitals have treated nearly 80,000 people for the effects of heatstroke and dehydration, according to medical officials.
After days of temperatures hovering at highs in the mid-40s Celsius (around 110 Fahrenheit), sea breezes and cloud cover have brought some respite to the port city in the last two days.
The Met Office forecast temperatures of around 34 degrees Celsius on Thursday, with 75 percent cloud cover.
"We are now getting fewer and fewer patients and hope the situation will become better with the passage of time," doctor Seemin Jamali from Jinnah Post Graduate Medical College told AFP.
AFP
