Nine opioid overdoses in Windsor-Essex reported this week prompts alert
The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit has issued an alert Tuesday as there were nine reported opioid overdoses last week.
According to the WECHU’s notification system, there were nine overdoses reported by local hospitals, seven of which involved fentanyl.
The alert said these values are two standard deviations above the region’s five-year historical average and three above the two-year historical average for the week of June 20-26.
Along with the emergency department visits, the system also identified three consecutive days of substance use-related EMS calls over that week.
WECHU also noted that for the second week, the Office of the Chief Coroner (OCCO) flagged that they detected an elevated number of substance and overdose-related deaths from June 13 to 19 in the Windsor-Essex area.
The week before, there were five suspected drug-related deaths which is 2.5 times higher than the region’s median number of deaths last year.
Partners involved in the WECOSS, including the WECHU, Windsor Regional Hospital, Essex Windsor EMS, Erie Shores Healthcare, and Police Services, continue to monitor this increase and are working to understand more about these reported cases.
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