Heat waves and a society that is not fully prepared for the heat had claimed 9,800 lives in Germany by mid-July, reports the German DPA.
Most of those affected were older, over 85 years old, with underlying lung and kidney diseases, according to the Robert Koch Institute in Berlin.
More than half of the deaths occurred in the second half of June, when just over 5,000 people died, and between July 13 and 19 alone, the heat is estimated to have caused the deaths of 1,900 people.
In 2018, around 9,000 people died in Germany from heat-related causes, the highest number in the last ten years.
