Spike in Overdose Deaths During COVID-19

Friday, June 18th, 2021 -- 12:00 PM

(WMTV) While the world battled a pandemic, an epidemic was still raging on, one that was fed by the isolation and despair many experienced during coronavirus.

While attention was focused on COVID-19, the issue of overdoses went overlooked. Over the past year, first responders and medical professionals have seen a spike in overdoses, both on the national and local levels.

The Wisconsin Department of Health Services says there is a seasonality when it comes to opioid overdoses. However, the department did see a growing trend overall across the state in recent years.

According to the Wisconsin Ambulance Runs Data System, in 2018 statewide, there were 1,268 opioid overdose ambulance runs in the first quarter of the year. In the first quarter of 2019, that number was 1,208. In 2020, that number jumped to 1,869, and increased further in the first quarter of 2021 to 1,963.

When looking at the statewide average number of opioid overdose ambulance runs per month by quarter, the second and third quarters of 2020, and the first quarter of 2021, had the first, second, and third highest numbers in the past three years, respectively.

Those quarters correspond with the onset of COVID-19 restrictions and life during the pandemic. Nationally, there has also been a rise in overdoses during the pandemic.

A study published in February 2021 in the peer-reviewed medical journal JAMA Psychiatry looked at emergency room visits from December 2018 to October 2020. According to the study, weekly counts of overdoses were up to 45% higher in 2020 compared with the same week in 2019.

From late 2018 to mid October 2019, the study recorded an average of nearly 13,000 drug related overdoses in emergency departments weekly. In roughly the same period a year later, there were nearly 15,000.

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