Ohio’s Franklin County saw a 55 percent increase in suspected drug overdose deaths for the first quarter of 2020 compared to 2019’s first quarter.
Between January and March of 2020, Franklin County experienced 191 drug overdose death. During this same time span in 2019, the county saw 123 deaths.
“There was a 74.4% increase in drug overdose deaths from January 2020 as compared to January 2019,” the report says. “Followed by 117.9% increase year over year for February 2020 versus February 2019 and a 10.7% increase from March 2020 versus March 2019.”
Dr. Anahi Ortiz, the Franklin County coroner, told The Washington Post that she and her staff moved into a building this year that is three times bigger than the previous one, but the coroner’s office is already out of room.
“There’s just so many. And the bodies absolutely can’t go on the floor, out of respect for the decedents,” she said. “We’re trying to borrow carts that emergency management was saving for hospitals and the possible covid surge.”
In Franklin County, the most common drug used in these overdose deaths were fentanyl, (70.2 percent), cocaine (41.4 percent), methamphetamine 13.6% (26) and alcohol (13.1 percent).
Of these 191 drug overdose deaths, 70 percent were by men – and most commonly, unmarried White men.
The two most affected age groups were those between the ages of 30 to 39 (27.2 percent) and 50 to 59 (26.2 percent). Almost 70 percent of these drug overdoses were committed by Whites, while people of color composed only 30 percent of these overdoses.
When the coronavirus lockdowns started to hit Ohio, Franklin County witnessed 62 overdoses in April. Furthermore, one weekend in May the county had 28 non-fatal overdoses.
“I think the pandemic has just made the situation worse for people, (with) unemployment, isolation,” Ortiz told The Columbus Dispatch.
To date, Franklin County is the hardest-hit by COVID-19 in Ohio, with 417 – about 1 out of 7 – of the state’s 2,903 deaths attributed to the disease.
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Zachery Schmidt is the digital editor of Star News Digital Media. If you have any tips, email Zachery at [email protected]. Follow Zachery on Twitter @zacheryschmidt2.
