Ministry of Health and Welfare activates heat-wave response headquarters

The Ministry of Health and Welfare said Friday it had activated an emergency heat-wave response headquarters to minimize casualties and support vulnerable people as a nationwide heat wave became more widespread and prolonged.

The ministry elevated its initial response team to a headquarters led by the first vice minister that will operate around the clock until the heat-wave central disaster response headquarters is lifted.

Working with the Disease Control and Prevention Agency, it will monitor heat-related illnesses and infections associated with heat waves, strengthen disaster medical response, and protect older and homeless people, residents of single-room housing districts and low-income people.

Care workers in areas under heat-wave alerts will call or visit high-risk older people, including those with limited mobility and rural workers, twice a day during severe heat-wave alerts and direct them to cooling shelters. Homeless support centers are expanding day and night patrols and welfare checks in single-room housing communities.

Working with 16 regional governments, the ministry has designated 6,363 senior centers for extended operations through September. The centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. every day for people 65 or older seeking relief from the heat.

Between May 15 and Aug. 4, the agency recorded 300 heat-related illnesses among people 80 or older, the highest rate of any age group at 12.5 per 100,000 people. Thirteen of 21 suspected heat-related deaths, or 62 percent, were in that age group.

"With heat waves and tropical nights continuing, people aged 80 and older need particular protection because they face the highest per-capita risk of heat-related illness and account for a large share of deaths," the agency said.

Home cooling is a concern: 18.0 percent of heat-related illness cases among people 80 and older occurred at home, against 7.0 percent for all age groups. Of 176,514 home visits by visiting health nurses as of Aug. 4, 128,283, or 72.7 percent, involved cooling checks or heat-wave prevention supplies.