OLYMPIA — The state Department of Health has launched an Opioid and Drug Overdose Data dashboard that includes county-level data on hospitalizations and deaths due to overdose of opioids and other drugs in 2021.
The North Olympic Peninsula had 48 fatal overdoses in 2021 — 38 in Clallam County and 10 in Jefferson County, according to the state. It had 82 non-fatal hospitalizations — 67 in Clallam County and 15 in Jefferson County.
Statewide totals are 2,264 fatal overdoses and 4,901 non-fatal hospitalizations.
The dashboard is at statedashboard.
The data are updated quarterly from sources, including death certificates and hospital discharge information, and can be used to examine opioid morbidity and mortality due to drug overdose to help raise awareness of the opioid epidemic in Washington state.
“Drug overdose, particularly from opioids such as fentanyl, is a serious public health crisis in our country and in our state,” said Tao Sheng Kwan-Gett, MD, MPH.
“Between 2007 and 2021, more than 17,500 Washington residents died from a drug overdose. Sixty-eight percent of those deaths involved an opioid, with the annual number nearly doubling since 2019.”