According to a report from QuoteWizard, one of the nation’s leading online insurance marketplaces, the number of fatal drug overdoses has increased by more than 27% since the start of the pandemic, including a 38.7% increase in drug-related overdose deaths in Virginia, the 10th highest increase in the country.
The report’s statistics say that nationwide, 87,203 persons died of an overdose in 2020, compared to some 69,000 in 2019. 2013 of those deaths were in Virginia; 1451 persons died from overdoses in the commonwealth in 2019.
Among the finding from the report are that Louisiana, Kentucky, and West Virginia have had the highest increases in overdose-related deaths; Pennsylvania, Florida, and California had the highest numbers of overdose deaths overall; and combined, opioids account for nearly 70% of the overdose deaths.
The ten states with the number of their drug overdose deaths in 2020 and the percentage of the increase from 2019 are 1. Louisiana, 1816 deaths, a 53.2% increase; 2. Kentucky, 1939 deaths, an increase of 49.2%; 3. West Virginia, 1208 deaths, a 49.0% increase; 4. Colorado, 1478 deaths, a 42.4% increase; 5. South Carolina, 1568 deaths, an increase of 41.6%; 6. Tennessee, 2865 deaths, a 40.9% increase; 7. Florida, 7394 deaths, a 40.8% increase; 8. Wyoming, 96 deaths, an increase of 39.1%; 9. Mississippi, 465 deaths, a 38.8% increase; and 10. Virginia, 2013 deaths, an increase of 38.7%.
