Vancouver Coastal Health’s chief medical officer, Dr. Patricia Daly, says fewer drug users are visiting overdose prevention sites due to the COVID-19 crisis, which will lead to a spike in deaths.
The Downtown Eastside recently saw eight overdose deaths in a week, and Daly says there is growing concern that people are dying alone in their rooms. “I’m concerned that because of fear around COVID-19, which we’ve only really seen at very low levels in that community, that people are not accessing life-saving services such as overdose prevention and we’ve actually seen a little bit of a spike of overdose deaths in March and April,” Daly said.