Island Health have extended their long-standing overdose advisory for the entire Island region again, on top of an already unprecedented situation. (File Photo/NanaimoNewsNOW)

By NanaimoNewsNOW Staff

EXTENDED AGAIN

Vancouver Island overdose advisory in place for nearly one month

Jun 10, 2020 | 12:17 PM

NANAIMO — Island Health has extended an overdose advisory, in place for all of Vancouver Island, once more.

It’s now been in place for a month less a day and continues an already unprecedented situation for the health authority. The advisory, first issued Vancouver Island-wide on May 11, has now been extended four times.

Medical health officer Dr. Paul Hasselback told NanaimoNewsNOW in May many of the overdose events on the Island and across B.C. are to do with smoking substances and not injecting them, which is unusual.

He said medical health officers are grappling with numerous good theories about why the already tainted drug supply has become more fatal.

“(It) may be an impact as a result of restrictions at the border. There may be other reasons we’re seeing this, including behavioral changes associated with staying home, people using substances as a way of filling time.”

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Overdose fatalities across B.C. have skyrocketed since the COVID-19 pandemic began altering day-to-day life.

In March, 113 people lost their lives, a devastating number which increased to 117 in April.

The BC Coroners Service said this is the first time since late 2018 the province suffered more than 100 illicit drug toxicity deaths in back-to-back months.

3.9 people died a day due to illicit substances in April.

One additional person fatally overdosed in Nanaimo in April, bringing 2020’s death toll to nine in Nanaimo and 60 across Vancouver Island.

A vast majority of deaths occurred when substance users were alone, as it has been throughout much of the overdose crisis.

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