Pamela Cruz. Peninsula 360 Press [P360P].
San Francisco reported a total of 699 accidental opioid overdose deaths in 2020, a record number, after a 63 percent increase compared to 2019, the county's Office of Medical Examiner (OCME) said.
The report, which covers Jan. 1 to Dec. 31, 2020, and was released Thursday, notes that 82 percent of those who overdosed were male, while 18 percent were female.
In terms of race, Caucasians were the most affected, accounting for 48 percent of the deaths, followed by people of African descent with 25 percent; Latinos, 16 percent; others, 5.0 percent; and Asians, 4.0 percent.
The report also details that, according to preliminary data, the ages with the highest number of incidences were people aged 55 to 64 with 25 percent of the total number of deaths; followed by those aged 35 to 44 with 23 percent; 45 to 54 with 22 percent; 25 to 34 with 16 percent; 65 and older, 10 percent; and 15 to 24, 4.0 percent.
The OCME highlights in the document that the drug that was responsible for the highest number of accidental overdoses was fentanyl, followed by methamphetamines, cocaine, heroin and medical opioids.
Experts believe that the increase in overdoses may have been driven by the COVID-19 epidemic, because while isolation helps stop the spread of the virus, for drug users it has increased the likelihood of using hard drugs that lead to death.
More than 20 percent of accidental overdose deaths in San Francisco occurred in the Tenderloin, followed by SOMA, Nob Hill and the Inner Mission.
The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has not yet released its report on the number of deaths in the country due to accidental opioid overdoses, however, in 2019 it noted that nearly 71,000 people died from those causes, with a large portion due to fentanyl.
