The Saskatchewan government has activated an emergency response after hundreds of reported overdoses in the city of Saskatoon.
The move comes after firefighters have responded to more than 300 overdoses since Feb. 25, according to government data. It said there were 67 overdose calls between March 9 and 11 and one suspicious death in that same timeframe.
Saskatchewan activated its Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC) on March 12 in response to the “toxic drug crisis” in Saskatoon, the province said in a press release. The PEOC uses an “incident command system” which centralizes the response between provincial ministries, agencies, and organizations to coordinate resources.
The surge in overdoses appears linked to a brownish-red fentanyl batch with such high fentanyl levels that patients require four or five doses of naloxone to recover, authorities said….