COVID-19 and heat waves: New challenges for healthcare systems

Abstract

Heat waves and Covid-19 overlap, as this pandemic continues into summer 2021. Using a narrative review, we identified overlapping risk groups and propose coping strategies. The high-risk groups for heat-related health problems as well as for high-risk COVID-19 groups overlap considerably (elderly with pre-existing health conditions). Health care facilities will again be challenged by Covid-19 during such heat waves. Health care personnel are also at risk of developing heat related health problems during hot periods due to the use of personal protective equipment to shield themselves from SARS-CoV-2 and must therefore be protected from excessive heat periods. Some existing recommendations for heat health protection contradict recommendations for COVID-19 protection. This paper provides a preliminary overview of possible strategies and interventions to tackle these ambiguities. The existing recommendations for protection against heat-related illnesses need revisions to determine whether they include essential aspects of infection control and occupational safety and how they may be supplemented.

Heat-related mortality amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic

“…Unfortunately, the drastic reduction in ER admission for urgent cases, together with disruptions in healthcare efficiency observed since the beginning of the pandemic, might have critically hampered rates of life-saving success for these heat-related illnesses. This outcome stresses the need to more efficiently provide awareness to the general population about HW-related complications (Martinez et al 2020), risks of mortality, and access to healthcare, especially under such atypical conditions as the ones experienced since 2020 (Bose-O'Reilly et al 2021;Rhubart 2020), under the constraints of being amidst a pandemic (IFRC 2020). Furthermore, such awareness and mitigation measures become even more strident in the context of recurrent and increasingly frequent HW episodes in western Europe (Sousa et al 2020), associated to a warming climate (Guo et al 2018;USAID 2019;WHO 2009), and on the significant impacts on the capacity of healthcare in a population with increasing average age distribution, as in Portugal (INE 2020).…”

Health Risks to the Russian Population from Temperature Extremes at the Beginning of the XXI Century

“…Much less is known about associations with extreme temperature events. As the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic continues in the summer of 2021, the problem is to identify overlapping risk groups, which include elderly with pre-existing disease and medical staff due to the use of individual protective equipment; strategies should be proposed to mitigate the consequences of both the heat and viral threat [197][198][199][200]. Understanding the links between thermally extreme environments and human respiratory infections in different temperature regimes can reduce the turbulence and distribution of a new COVID-19 pandemic or any other in the future.…”

Hot days and Covid-19: Online survey of nurses and nursing assistants to assess occupational heat stress in Germany during summer 2020

“…During the week of August 10th alone, deaths reported were 20% above average as compared to the same week between 2016 and 2019 [14] . During such heat waves there is a need to protect workers in PPE from heat stress, even without the presence of a pandemic [15] , [16] , [17] .…”