With towns in Myanmar witnessing record-high temperatures amid a scorching heatwave, many people in the Southeast Asian country have been suffering from the sweltering heat in recent days.

Ye Naing Soe, a 31-year-old car driver in the commercial city of Yangon, said the rising temperature was affecting his business as well as his health.

"Now, I have to stop working at around 10:00 a.m. as it is getting hotter and hotter," he told Xinhua, adding that the reason he stopped working in the afternoon is that he could not bear the sweltering heat and constant sweating.

Ye said that his normal working hours are from around 4:00 a.m. to around 4:00 p.m., but as he has stopped working from 10:00 a.m., his income has decreased.

"Before, I could earn about 30,000-40,000 kyats (about 14-19 U.S. dollars) daily. Now, I can only earn about 15,000-20,000 kyats (about 7-9.5 U.S. dollars)," he said.

Earlier this month, the Myanmar Health Ministry issued heat exhaustion and heat stroke precaution tips as temperatures were rising in many parts of the country.

Many parts of Myanmar, particularly the central Magway and Mandalay regions, have recently witnessed extremely hot weather, with the mercury hitting above 40 degrees Celsius, posing health challenges to people.

Chauk town in the Magway region and Nyaung-U town in the Mandalay region reaching 45 degrees Celsius on April 19 were placed first and third, respectively, on the worldwide list of cities with the highest temperatures, the country's weather bureau confirmed from EI Dorado weather report.

Rescue organizations in Yangon, Mandalay and Bagan said the people they had rescued last week included those who suffered from extreme heat, adding that they had also collected the bodies of the people who died of heat-related illnesses.

"Last week, it was very hot in Mandalay. I didn't even go outside on my holidays," Thura Htun, a 30-year-old resident of Mandalay, told Xinhua on Monday.

Local media outlets reported last week that some Mandalay residents have been avoiding the extreme heat in air-conditioned shopping centers. The same has been happening at air-conditioned shopping malls in Yangon as the mercury has risen to around 40 degrees Celsius in recent days.

"I came from Bago. Now, I am avoiding the extreme temperature here," Nat Ye Hla, a 45-year-old man who was sitting at a coffee shop inside the Yankin Center, a shopping mall in Yangon, told Xinhua.

"I will go back home at around 4:00 p.m. when the temperature decreases." He said he came to Yangon for a social occasion in the morning, and he can't return immediately as it is too hot outside.

The country's weather bureau said the temperature in Nay Pyi Taw, Sagaing, Mandalay, Magway and east Bago Regions as well as Kachin, Shan, Rakhine and Kayah states in Myanmar is 1.5-2 degrees Celsius above the average temperature for April.

On April 18, Tamu town in western Myanmar's Sagaing Region recorded its highest temperature in 44 years at 43.8 degrees Celsius, the weather bureau's figures showed.

"The temperature will rise until the monsoon rains begin," U Hla Tun, director from the Department of Meteorology and Hydrology, said.

April and May are typically the hottest months of the year for Myanmar as the temperature spikes before monsoon season begins and brings some relief.