A new report from the Massachusetts Department of Public Health [DPH] shows a slight increase in opioid-related deaths over the first nine months of 2020.
The in first nine months of 2020 there were 1,517 confirmed and estimated opioid-related overdose deaths in Massachusetts. This is an estimated increase of 33 deaths, 2.2% higher than the first nine months of 2019.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, Massachusetts has increased overdose prevention efforts, including expanding telehealth services, reducing barriers to treatment, expanding naloxone distribution, and receiving federal approval to permit licensed treatment programs to provide take-home doses of medications for opioid use disorder.
Overall, opioid-related overdose deaths dropped 5 percent in 2019 since their peak in 2016, when 2,102 people died, preliminary data show. Fentanyl has been a persistent factor in many of these deaths.
In the first half of 2020, the rate of fentanyl present among opioid-related overdose deaths where a toxicology report was available was 93 percent.
Despite the growth of fentanyl use, the 2020 opioid-related overdose death rate of 29 per 100,000 people is approximately 5 percent lower than the 30.6 per 100,000 in 2016.
