Starting Friday, health authorities will operate a system to monitor cases of heat-related diseases caused by scorching summer weather.

The Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency(KDCA) said on Friday that the system will be in place until September 30, with cooperation from about 500 medical institutions operating emergency rooms, community health centers and local municipalities to monitor patients treated at the emergency rooms for heat-related diseases.

The KDCA plans to collect the data and post daily updates of new cases on its homepage.

Last year, the monitoring system compiled one-thousand-376 cases, with 20 deaths resulting from heat stroke. The 20 deaths from heat-related illnesses mark the second largest total since 2011, when the nation introduced the monitoring system.

Heat-related illnesses, which include heat stroke and heat exhaustion, are caused by exposure to abnormal or prolonged amounts of heat.