Drug overdose deaths are down by 24 per cent between April last year and this April, but still B-C’s Coroner says 182 people died.
Fentanyl remains the primary killer, with the drug detected in 82 per cent of test results for those who died so far this year.
The coroner’s service says nearly half of those who overdosed were between the ages of 30 and 49.
The latest figures lift the number of deaths since the public health emergency was declared eight years ago to 14-thousand 582 people.
Wildfires last year destroyed most the village of Lytton and forced almost 200 evacuation orders during a near-record season where 1,610 wildfires charred 8,682 square kilometres of land, primarily in southern and southeastern B.C.
An officer immediately rendered emergency first aid, applied a police tourniquet, and called for paramedics. The injured man was taken to hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
Decriminalization is slated to go into effect in B.C. at the end of January 2023, when those 18 and over will not face criminal penalties for possessing a total of 2.5 grams of opioids, cocaine, methamphetamine and MDMA, also known as ecstasy. Police would no longer confiscate drugs.
A flood watch has been issued by the River Forecast Centre for the Bulkley River in northwestern B.C., and evacuation alerts are in effect for low lying properties on either side of the river at Smithers.
On his way to California, Trudeau and Defence Minister Anita Anand will also pay a visit to Colorado Springs, which is home to the jointly commanded continental defence system known as Norad.
Globally, there are 550 confirmed cases in 30 non-endemic countries where the virus has not usually been found. Tam warns that while we know a lot about how the monkeypox virus behaves in countries where it is endemic, we know little about how it may behave in populations that are both mostly unvaccinated against it and have no natural levels of immunity.