One person died following 19 reported overdoses that took place across the city between Sunday and Tuesday.

According to one of the city’s front-line addiction healthcare workers, there were also at least four ​“saves” during that same time period — including by someone in a Congress Avenue barbershop who rushed out into the street to use the life-saving medication Narcan.

City Health Department Director Maritza Bond told the Independent on Thursday about that ​“uptick” in drug overdoses in New Haven that took place between Sunday, June 1, and Tuesday, June 3.

“In this time period, there were 19 overdoses (18 non-fatal, 1 fatal) that occurred across several neighborhoods in New Haven,” Bond said. 

“Preliminary data suggests that opioids and stimulants were involved, although test results are still pending. Our local, state and federal harm reduction and law enforcement partners are on the ground testing substances and investigating to better understand what is currently in the drug supply and what may have led to this increase.”

The New Haven Register’s Steven Goode first reported on the overdose spike on Wednesday.

According to a nine-page slideshow that the Health Department shared with 35 partners on June 3, the recent surge in overdoses triggered the department’s ​“Level 2 — Increased Risk” protocol, which takes effect when there are 11 – 14 overdoses in the city in 24 hours and/or ​“unusual overdose activity.”

That same slideshow indicates that a majority of the hospital emergency department (ED) visits for these recent overdoses were by Black men over the age of 60. The Health Department’s data do not show how many different people suffered from these 19 overdoses.

“We have activated a group of local and state public health and harm reduction partners, first responder and public safety partners to share what we know, request information and work quickly as a group to understand and address this concerning trend,” Bond said. ​“Our team will continue to conduct surveillance and monitoring and will work with partners to deploy resources and support. Our outreach staff are working across the city to distribute harm reduction supplies such as Narcan to residents while also gaining information from individuals that might help us better understand the situation.”

Phil Costello, the clinical director of the Cornell Scott Hill Health Center homeless street outreach team, told the Independent on Thursday about how the distribution of Narcan during this recent surge in overdoses directly saved at least four lives. 

Costello said that his outreach team travelled the Hill, Fair Haven, Newhallville, and the Tre over the weekend, distributing Narcan to barbershops and bodegas and at other community spots. 

He said that, later in the weekend, someone overdosed outside of one such barbershop, on Congress Avenue in the Hill. Someone inside of the barbershop ran to the rescue and administered Narcan in time to save that person’s life. 

“For every overdose that goes to the hospital, there’s at least one” that doesn’t end up with an ambulance call or an emergency department visit, Costello said. He praised the local efforts to distribute Narcan, as well as the Yale community health van’s program for testing bags of drugs to see what is truly in them. People may think they are buying fentanyl, say, but often those bags carry even more dangerous drugs — such as xylazine or ​“benzos.”

Costello’s main harm-reduction advice for surviving such a dangerous period like the recent spike in overdoses: ​“Narcan is only good if you have somebody to administer it. … Never use alone.” If you are a drug user and you have Narcan, make sure to hand to a person next to you or someone you trust. If there’s no one there to administer it, even the life-saving medication Narcan can’t help. ​“They can’t administer Narcan by themselves,” he said, if they are overdosing and in need of help.

Correction: The 19 overdoses took place between Sunday and Tuesday, not between Friday and Tuesday.

Read the full story on https://www.newhavenindependent.org/