The Department of Health on Friday again warned against heatstroke as the dry season continued and advised the public to stay out of the sun.
“Heatstroke is bad. It can lead to death but it’s easy to avoid,” Health Secretary Francisco Duque III told Unang Balita.
“Stay out of the sun and drink plenty of water.”
Duque made his statement even as Grid operator National Grid Corporation of the Philippines declared the Luzon grid on yellow alert for the fifth consecutive day, starting from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday on the back of high demand and low reserves.
NGCP said the available capacity was 11,292 megawatts against the peak demand of 10,097 MW. The yellow alert was lifted at 3:22 p.m.
NGCP raised the yellow alert status for the Luzon grid due to insufficient operating reserves brought about by the high system demand and forced/ unplanned outage of the following plants: Malaya Unit 2 (350 MW), Pagbilao Unit 3 (420 MW), SLTEC Unit 1 (135MW), Makban Unit 7 (20 MW) and Tiwi Unit 1 (60 MW), with total capacity of 985 MW.
Earlier, the weather bureau said heat cramps and heat exhaustion were likely due to the hot weather.
Duque said the public should not do physical exercises from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. as that was the hottest period of the day.
He said heatstroke could also cause multiple organ failure.
The Health department said the symptoms of heatstroke were dizziness, headache, high fever, increased heart rate and unconsciousness.”‹