Overdose Deaths Reached Record High as the Pandemic Spread

In the 12-month period that ended in April, more than 100,000 Americans died of overdoses, up almost 30 percent from the 78,000 deaths in the prior year. The grim tally signals a public health crisis whose magnitude was both obscured by the COVID-19 pandemic and accelerated by it, experts said. Administration officials said that they will expand access to medications like naloxone, which can reverse an opioid overdose, by encouraging states to pass laws that will make it more widely available. See more here.