KSHB: Rise in opioid deaths during the pandemic alarms health leaders

The opioid crisis has not slowed down during the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, overdose deaths related to the use of opioids have increased locally and nationally.

"We've seen some similar trends to what's been happening nationally which is about a 30% increase in opiate overdose deaths," Dr. Jeffrey Foster, a Saint Luke's interventional pain medicine physician said. "In Missouri, there's been about a 30% increase in overdose deaths during the pandemic and here locally in the KC metro, it's been about 15% increase in overdose deaths."

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