Fentanyl has taken the lives of four people in Fort McMurray so far in 2020.
The government of Alberta released the 2020 second quarter opioid report on Wednesday which noted 284 Albertans died from an overdose in April to June.
This is a big jump from the 130 who passed away from January to March.
The GoA believes the spike in cases is related to the COVID-19 pandemic as the provincial measures started to be introduced in mid-March.
“Alberta is not alone in this reality – British Columbia has reported similar findings and trends during the first few months of the COVID-19 pandemic and we anticipate similar findings in other jurisdictions, such as Ontario, which is in the preliminary stages of reporting,” read the report.
Each of the four deaths happened in the second quarter as Fort McMurray was the only major provincial community to not experience any fentanyl-related overdoses to start the year. Last year, the community saw eight fentanyl-related overdoses.
Fort McMurray continues to have the least amount of deaths, one less than Medicine Hat and six less than Grande Prairie.
Calgary and Edmonton continue to see the highest amounts of deaths in Alberta – sitting at 148 and 135 respectively.
Emergency services also had to respond to 20 more opioid-related incidents in Fort McMurray, bringing the yearly total to 27. This is also the lowest among the major communities.
Meanwhile, the community didn’t see any additional overdoses related to an opioid other than fentanyl. One individual passed away in the first quarter.
Despite this, Fort McMurray has the highest rate of drug poisoning deaths related to other opioids per 100,000 person-years.
