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BOSTON (WBZ NewsRadio) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said overdose deaths in 2021 climbed more than 10% in Massachusetts on Wednesday.
The state recorded 2,526 overdose deaths total between December 2020 and December 2021, which was up 230 deaths from the same 12-month period in 2020 according to the agency's preliminary report.
This as the agency says there were a record high number of overdose deaths nationwide last year: 107,622 or roughly one overdose death every five minutes.
The CDC had predicted a slightly higher climb of 11% on the year.
The rest of New England mostly fared worse than the Commonwealth: Connecticut and Rhode Island showed roughly 12% increases, while Maine saw a 26% increase and Vermont's deaths increased by more than a third.
The one outlier was New Hampshire, which actually saw a decrease of about 2.5% over 2020.
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