Elderly heat stroke risk indirectly caused by COVID-19

Emergency transport data from Tottori Prefecture, Japan were used to evaluate the indirect impact of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) restrictions on heat stroke. There were 426 cases of emergency transport owing to heat stroke in summer 2020 compared with 1465 cases combined for the summers of 2017–2019. The mean age of cases in 2020 was 66.2 years—significantly higher than the 60.0 years in 2017 (p = 0.004), 57.4 years in 2018 (p < 0.001), and 57.6 years in 2019 (p < 0.001). In 2020, 47.7% of cases were older than 75 (previously, 35.6–44.2%), and 36.9% were transported from their residence, (previously, 26.6–29.3%). Thus, COVID-19 measures, such as “stay at home” requests, may have increased the risk of heat stroke in older adults.