Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government Saturday confirmed the deaths of nine persons due to sunstroke so far, while the investigation into 81 more casualties suspected to be linked to heat-related illness is currently underway.
According to a report from the Office of the Special Relief Commissioner (SRC), the government has received information about 96 cases of suspected sunstroke deaths during the current summer season.
Out of those, 54 suspected cases were reported from seven districts since Friday.
The districts were Bolangir (20 cases), Sambalpur (15), Jharsuguda (six), Keonjhar (four), Sonepur (six), Sundargarh (two) and Balasore (one).
As per the report, nine sunstroke death cases have been confirmed so far, of which three deaths were reported in the last 48 hours.
During the investigation, the government also found that six deaths were not due to sunstroke. A joint investigation is underway for the remaining 81 death cases, the report said.
Meanwhile, Odisha chief secretary Pradeep Kumar Jena and SRC Satyabrata Sahu on Saturday took a heatwave review meeting with all district collectors except Mayurbhanj, Balasore, Bhadrak, Kendrapara, Jajpur, Jagatsinghpur, Puri and Cuttack.
The collectors have been instructed to ensure the implementation of heat wave advisories and precautionary measures issued by the SRC.
They were further asked to ensure post-mortem examination of suspected sunstroke death cases for sanction of ex-gratia.
This apart, a joint inquiry by the local revenue officer and the local medical officer needs to be conducted to ascertain the exact cause of the death, officials said.
The situation is being monitored round the clock by the office of the SRC, they said.
A severe heatwave continued to grip many parts of the state on Saturday with mercury shot up to 46 degrees Celsius at Titlagarh. It was followed by Bargarh (45.8 deg C), Bolangir (45.5 deg C), Bhawanipatna (44.6 deg C), and Nuapada (44 deg C).
Apart from these places, seven other places in Odisha recorded a day temperature of 40 deg C or above during the day.
PTI
