With the nation still baking in a record heat wave, the heat-related weekly death toll reached 32, the highest number this year, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency reported Aug. 11.

A total of 11,219 people, 2.3 times more than in the same period last year, were taken to the hospital in the week through Aug. 9.
The severe heat also affected the normally cool shores of Hokkaido and the Tohoku region, which experienced excessively hot days with the mercury reaching 35 degrees or higher, according to Newsonjapan.com.

The number of hospitalized patients also increased in the Kinki region from a year earlier.

Of the 11,219 people taken to hospitals with heat-related symptoms, those aged 65 or older accounted for 52.5 percent.