VANCOUVER — The British Columbia government is preparing to release updated numbers on the province-wide crisis of overdose deaths.
Health Minister Terry Lake and Public Safety Minister Mike Morris make the announcement this afternoon in Vancouver.
They'll be accompanied by Chief Coroner Lisa Lapointe and Provincial Health Officer Dr. Perry Kendall, who announced a provincial public health crisis earlier this year in the wake of hundreds of fatal overdoses linked to the powerful opioid fentanyl.
Lake isn't offering specifics, but says he expects the numbers will be down slightly in the most recent month covered by the report.
He says there's hope the trend will continue and credits health officials and first responders, as well as the wider availability of naloxone, which can reverse the effects of opioid overdoses.
Coroners Service statistics reveal 433 overdose deaths across B.C. in the first seven months of 2016, a nearly 75-per-cent increase over the same period last year, with fentanyl detected in 238 of those cases, a 250-per-cent jump over last year.
