San Francisco’s 621 deadly drug overdoses in 2020 tower over 173 COVID-19 deaths

New statistics out of San Francisco show its citizens having a far more likely chance of dying from a drug overdose in 2020 than by coronavirus.

Grim statistics tallied by The San Francisco Chronicle include 58 people killed by fentanyl abuse in November and a record 621 drug-overdose victims thus far this year. 

“The latest numbers put San Francisco on track to losing nearly two people a day by the end of the year and dwarf the 173 deaths from COVID-19 the city has seen so far this year,” the newspaper reported.

Overdoses fueled by opioid crisis in 2019 totaled 441 people, which was already a 70% increase from the previous year. 

A large concentration of the deaths have taken place in “low-income apartment buildings and in city-funded hotel rooms for the homeless,” the Chronicle added.

The newspaper noted that COVID-19-related disruptions to city services may contribute to the problem by forcing users into isolation.

“[Victims] often rely on others to help save them if they overdose,” the Chronicle reported. “But as a record amount of people die from overdoses, a staggering [2,975] people have also been saved by Narcan, the opioid reversal drug.”