VOI - Voice of Indonesia | RRI - Radio Republik Indonesia

Children relax in a fountain in Los Angeles, California, United States (July 5, 2024). ANTARA/Xinhua/Zeng Hui/aa.

VOINews, Jakarta: A severe heatwave has gripped a significant portion of the United States this summer, with large areas of California, Nevada, Arizona, and Utah under extreme heat warnings, according to official data and media reports.

As quoted by Antara on Saturday, more than 60 million U.S. residents have received heatwave warnings from the National Weather Service. Summer temperatures in these areas often range between 10 and 30 degrees above average, as reported by The New York Times on Friday (July 12).

"The consequences are increasingly evident in emergency rooms across the country. Medical workers are facing patients suffering from heatstroke, with body temperatures soaring to potentially fatal levels if not treated promptly," said The New York Times.

Approximately 2,300 people died from heat-related illnesses in the U.S. in 2023, a threefold increase from the annual average between 2004 and 2018. In the same year, nearly 120,000 emergency room visits related to heat were recorded nationwide, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention./Antara/VOI