Public health issues overdose alert for the 2nd week in a row in Windsor Essex

The Windsor-Essex County Health Unit is once again sounding the alarm on opioidsafter a dozen fentanyl overdoses were reported in a week.

The health unit, which has an overdose surveillance and monitoring system, said that the 12 overdoses occurredbetween Sept. 14 and 20. Nine were reported by Windsor Regional Hospital and the remainder were reported at Leamington's Erie Shores HealthCare.

During the same time, the hospitals' emergency roomsalso dealt with four opioid-related cases that were not overdoses, three involving the powerful synthetic opioid fentanyl.

"Historically, the number of overdoses reported during this period are significantly high whencompared to our five-year average," the health unit said in a media release on Thursday.

The health unit is issuing such an alert for a secondweek in a row. Ten overdoses were reported between Sept. 12 and 14.Nine of the overdoses involved fentanyl, and one involved heroin.

Last year, amid the pandemic, Windsor-Essex experienceda record348 overdoses, 64 of which were fatal. The public health unit is looking to establish a supervised consumption and treatment site.