The COVID-19 pandemic is gripping the world, but the U.S. is also dealing with another public health crisis.
New government data released this week illustrates that drug overdose deaths are on the rise.
In 2019, there were nearly 71,000 deaths attributed to drug overdose, according to the CDC.
According to Gizmodo, that is the highest yearly number recorded to date.
The CDC’s data shows there were 70,980 deaths related to drug overdose, slightly above the 2017 count of 70,237.
