More than 16,000 people died in a single week during Europe’s heatwave in late June — and in at least one area, the daily death toll spiked above the highs of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of mortality data.
In Wallonia, in southern Belgium, 313 deaths were recorded in just one day, June 28, compared to 245 daily deaths at the peak of COVID in November 2020, the New York Times found.
As temperatures soared to over 100 degrees, Wallonia recorded a death rate 77% higher than expected between mid-June and early July, leaving some hospitals overrun.
Despite the horrific toll, local leaders are still resisting installing air conditioning. Just 20% of European homes have the common technology — compared to 90% in the US.
“Air-conditioning can be appropriate in specific situations, particularly for vulnerable people or certain buildings,” said a spokesperson for Wallonia’s housing and energy minister, adding that their “long-term strategy is not based on its widespread use.”
Sniffy Belgians also do not “want to be Americans,” Belgian doctor Toon Ceyssens told the Times.
Around 16,000 excess deaths were recorded in Europe in just one week in late June, with Belgium, France, and Germany most affected, according to figures from the European Mortality Monitoring Network.
“Each crisis is becoming increasingly severe. That’s what we’re failing to anticipate,” Wallonia’s regional health minister Yves Coppieters told the Times.
Half of all emergency rooms in Wallonia’s hospitals have no air conditioning, according to Dr. Phillippe Devos, director general of a health care provider federation.
In the region’s overcrowded health centers, calls to emergency operators often took 10 minutes to get through, and many sick people were lined up in the hallways to allow privacy for the dead, the Times reported.
Around 85% of the excess deaths in Wallonia were among those aged 65 or over, with low-income seniors who lived alone particularly at risk, according to official statistics.
“It’s a country that is considered cold, culturally. People think more about heating their house than cooling their house,” Gilles Vanvolsem, managing director of the Belgian Green Building Council, told the Times.
The number of households with AC, which is lower than most other developed economies, drops to between 4-6% in France, Germany, and the UK, which have all seen blistering heatwaves this summer.
Some doctors are calling on older people to install AC units, despite many being reluctant.
“The mentality on air conditioning has to change,” Belgian doctor Toon Ceyssens told the Times, adding that many of his patients were reluctant to install AC over fears it would make them sick, spread germs, and harm the environment.
Belgian officials continue to hesitate over introducing AC, warning it could overwhelm the power grid and heat up cities by pumping out hot air into the streets.
Authorities are instead looking at introducing more so-called cooling spaces and instituting policies to encourage housing renovation.
