Nearly 50 fatal overdoses are suspected so far this year in Jefferson County. The coroner is waiting on lab reports to confirm the 47 reported deaths that all happened in January. If all cases are confirmed, it will be the highest death rate in one month the county has seen in years. County data shows anywhere from 24 to 44 overdoses happened per month back in 2021. And an overall of at least 417 drug OD’s were confirmed by the coroner’s office last year. Officials say there’s no clear reason why overdoses are higher some months than others and no pattern has been found around the deaths. More data is expected to be released later this year.
Officials said there are an alarming number of opioid overdose deaths in Jefferson County, only one month into the new year. Jefferson County Coroner Bill Yates says officials are just waiting on lab reports to confirm the deaths. But, Yates said if it is truly 47 deaths in just one month, that is higher than they’ve seen in years. He said there’s no clear answer as to why. Yates is still working to break down all of the monthly data for 2021. He says that will be ready by April. But right now, we do know there were over four hundred confirmed drug overdoses last year.
