Thirty-three people, including election officials on duty, died of suspected heatstroke in three major Indian states on Friday, including Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Odisha.
Fourteen people died in Bihar on Thursday, including 10 people involved in organising the seven-phase national elections that are currently underway. Many election officials are usually required to stand on duty all day, many times outdoors.
Parts of Bihar are voting in the final round of polling on Saturday as well.
In Uttar Pradesh, nine election personnel, including security persons, died on Friday, government officials said.
Ten deaths were reported from the government hospital in Odisha on Thursday, authorities said, prompting government to advise against outdoor activities between 11:00 am and 3:00 pm local time when temperatures heighten.
Three people died of suspected heatstroke in Jharkhand state, neighbouring Bihar.
India has been experiencing a record hot summer. A locality of the capital Delhi recorded the country’s highest-ever temperature at 52.9°C this week.
While temperatures in north-western and central India are expected to fall in the coming days, the prevailing heatwave over eastern India is likely to continue for two days, according to India’s Meteorological Department (IMD), which declares a heatwave when the temperature is 4.5°C to 6.4°C higher than normal.
The last phase of voting is scheduled to be held on Saturday and votes will be in counted on Tuesday.
However, the deadly heatwave in the South Asian region is expected to continue until Saturday.