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May 28, 2020 12:36 AM -

Illicit-drug deaths up in B.C. and remain highest in Canada: Chief coroner

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Needles are seen on the ground in Oppenheimer park in Vancouver's downtown eastside on March 17, 2020. A rising death toll from overdoses in B.C. during the COVID-19 pandemic has advocates, government officials and health-care workers concerned about a public health emergency that has been overshadowed by the response to the virus. The BC Coroners Service says 113 people died in March of suspected illicit drug toxicity, the first time in a year that deaths from overdoses across B.C. exceeded 100. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Jonathan Hayward

British Columbia's overdose deaths spiked in March and April reaching the same heights recorded over a year earlier.

The BC Coroners Service says 117 people died last month, matching the number of fatalities in March 2019, followed by a steady decline in deaths every month since then.

However, the service says 112 deaths in March and 117 in April mark the first time since late 2018 that the province has recorded more than 100 fatalities two month in a row.

The service reports 78 deaths in January, and 75 in February this year More than 4,700 people have died of overdoses since the B.C. government declared a public health emergency in early 2016.

Chief coroner Lisa Lapointe says efforts since late March to improve access to a safer supply of drugs in B.C. are encouraging but the death rate from illicit drugs is still the highest in Canada.

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