A 67-YEAR-OLD man from Kokkines in Larnaca was found dead yesterday from suspected heatstroke.
Earlier in the day a 90-year-old woman was hospitalised suffering from heatstroke, doctors said, as the island went through the fourth day of a heatwave, unprecedented in terms of temperature.
The 67-year-old man was found by his wife behind the chicken coop on the family’s property yesterday afternoon. Aradippou police are investigating his death but reports from Larnaca said heatstroke was the likely culprit.
The 90-year-old woman who was admitted to hospital yesterday was one of many who visited the emergency room at Larnaca General Hospital with heat-related symptoms, according to the Director of the Hospital’s Accident and Emergency Department, Dr. Kyriakos Kyriakides.
He said numbers were 50 per cent higher than usual.
Kyriakides said many people, especially workers, had turned up at the hospital since the weekend with heat exhaustion.
At a particularly high risk were people who suffer from diabetes or other conditions, and people who work outdoors. The 90-year-old woman exhibited some of the typical symptoms of heatstroke, including weakness, dizziness, cramps in the abdominal area, mental confusion and nausea.
Hospital authorities said her condition was critical in the morning though she improved by early afternoon.
In June, a 47-year-old Romanian construction worker died the day after being hospitalised with heatstroke with temperatures reaching 39 degrees Celsius – five degrees higher than the average for the period.
And last month, a 50-year-old Slovakian construction worker from the same building site was rushed to hospital in comatose condition as a result of heatstroke.
With yesterday’s temperatures still hovering above 40 degrees, the Labour Inspection Department made yet another announcement that workers should not be exposed to direct sunlight between 12 pm and 4 pm.
The Department allowed for light work in shaded areas, and suggested that workers should wear light, open-coloured clothing and have a plenty of cool drinking water.
Although temperatures are expected to drop for a couple of days starting today, the Meteorological Service said they will shoot back up to 40-41 degrees again on the weekend. Wednesday and Thursday will see temperatures drop to 39 degrees in the island’s interior, a cause for slight relief but still higher than the normal temperature for the period.
According to Panayiotis Michael of the Meteorological Service, most parts of Cyprus are suffering from an intense heat wave as high humidity is combined with high temperatures.
This combination causes the great discomfort felt in many areas of the island.
Yesterday morning, humidity levels at the Larnaca and Paphos airports reached 96 per cent with Limassol recording 90 per cent.
During the day, humidity was 47 per cent in Nicosia, which was one of the lowest on the island, with Paphos experiencing 81 per cent humidity, Larnaca 78 per cent, Limassol 69 per cent and Paralimni 43 per cent.
There were also power cuts on Monday afternoon and evening and Tuesday morning in areas of Nicosia, Paralimni and Limassol.
Electricity Authority spokesman Costas Gavrielides said the power cuts had nothing to do with the increased demand for electricity.
They were a result of the high levels of humidity that caused parts of the aerial network to short-circuit.
He added that humidity can also damage underground wires.
Christos Christodoulides, director of the Transmission System Operator, assured the public of the system’s sufficient electricity production and transfer capacity.
Christodoulides said that on Monday there was an extremely high demand for electricity at 1148 MW, 45 MW more than last year. Yesterday demand peaked at 2:15pm, with figures at that time reaching an all-time high of 1144 MW.
