The county expects to publish a draft of the final heat-related report in March or April 2024, Singh said. Hispanic or Latino people accounted for 24% of heat-associated deaths. Some 52% of deaths were people between the ages of 35 and 64, while 58% of deaths were among white people. Nearly three-quarters of the deaths - 74% - occurred outdoors, according to the county report. "Every one of these deaths can be prevented," Sonia Singh, a spokesperson for the county health department, told Phoenix New Times. "Any one of us could be at risk."Īs metro Phoenix struggled with a growing unsheltered population this year, the heat has taken its toll: 44% of the heat-related deaths in 2023 were among homeless people. If this year's amount of heat-associated deaths surpasses the 2022 total, it would be the highest number of heat-related fatalities since the county started its current tracking system in 2012, when 110 people died. At the same point in 2022, 284 heat-related fatalities were recorded, and by the end of the heat surveillance season in October last year, the county saw a record 425 deaths. The latest heat report from the Maricopa County Department of Public Health confirmed 331 heat-associated deaths through Wednesday, with another 273 cases under investigation. The record heat this year in the Valley has killed 331 people, likely positioning Maricopa County to record the most heat-associated deaths since it started tracking the morbid statistic more than a decade ago.
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