Officials with Positive Living Niagara say they are hearing about more fatal overdoses as people try to stay apart due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
"Anecdotally we do hear of people passing away, last week we had somebody, the week before someone, the week prior to that, a couple of people. It's a continuous number of people dying from overdoses here in Niagara and it really hasn't abated at all," Executive Director Glen Walker explains.
He says EMS is still averaging about 46 overdose calls a month and 134 Naloxone kits were used last month alone.
"I think our concern with the messaging around COVID is that we always say, 'Don't use alone,' but the whole message around COVID is 'Don't get close to people.'" he says. "And so we're really having challenges trying to get a message out there that you still need someone to be there, you still have to be careful, be aware of issues around COVID, but don't use alone."
Walker says demand at the supervised consumption treatment site hasn't really decreased too drastically during the pandemic with over a 1,000 visits last month.