Extreme Heat and the COVID-19 Pandemic: Global Heat Health Information Network Launches Comprehensive Online Resource

Heat and COVID-19, a new resource from the Global Heat Health Information Network (GHHIN) that launched in May, provides an array of science-based resources on coping with heat during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Ladd Keith, assistant professor of planning and sustainable built environments in the College of Architecture, Planning and Landscape Architecture (CAPLA) at the University of Arizona and CCASS advisory team member, was one of 40 international experts on extreme heat, public health and epidemiology who contributed to the website. Ladd’s contributions focused on the intersection between extreme heat, urban planning and local governance.

The world’s changing climate is fueling more intense extreme heat more frequently than ever before. The last five years (2015 to 2019) saw the hottest average global temperatures ever recorded, and longer, hotter heatwaves on every inhabited continent.

And now, responding to the global COVID-19 pandemic is foremost in people’s minds. Communities large and small around the world are facing questions about how to cope simultaneously with these two huge health threats. No one has had to simultaneously combine and implement COVID-19 protections and extreme heat protections before.

Read the full story on the CAPLA website.