Drug overdose deaths in New York Metropolis elevated 27% in 2021, with 4 out of 5 associated to fentanyl, because the black neighborhood within the metropolis and the Bronx reported a disproportionately increased variety of deaths, they stated. metropolis officers.
“These deaths are heartbreaking,” stated Dr. Ashwan Vasan, the town’s Well being Commissioner. “And lots of, if not most, are preventable. As a metropolis, we should use all of the evidence-based instruments at our disposal to achieve individuals with companies and, above all, help and compassion.”
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The brand new interim information discovered that 2,668 New Yorkers died in 2021, a rise of 78% over 2019 and 27% over 2020 numbers.
Fentanyl was concerned in 4 of the town’s 5 overdoses, and it continued as the most typical substance in drug-related deaths for the fifth consecutive 12 months. Among the many metropolis’s black residents, deaths greater than doubled between 2019 and 2021, in accordance with just lately launched statistics.
Within the Bronx, the hardest-hit neighborhoods had been recognized by the well being division as Hunts Level-Mott Haven, Crotona-Tremont and Highbridge-Morrisania. The most recent numbers proceed a lethal development within the areas, which constantly have a number of the highest overdose numbers since 2016.
![FDNY ambulances at the Queens Hospital Center emergency room in Jamaica, Queens.](https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/i66SuIKCeLU30_U9I3AS0_1_m8k=/1440x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/tronc/BLM7OX4SIVGUHBQKKDCLPRMBXY.jpg)
The town’s efforts to fight the drug plague within the final 9 months of 2022 included distributing almost 60,000 naxalone kits, supplying greater than 32,000 fentanyl check strips to greater than 5,500 individuals, and funding of New York’s 15 Syringe Service Applications.
“As a society, stigma, disgrace and worry have made the scenario worse and delayed the deployment of confirmed options,” Vasan stated. “Our workforce is engaged on an expanded response plan to proceed combating this disaster. That is what ethical management seems to be like and what the second calls for.”
The division additionally reported that different teams reporting giant will increase in overdose deaths had been New Yorkers ages 55 to 64, together with residents of high-poverty neighborhoods.