WHEELING, VA – Three people are dead and over a dozen had to be revived with Narcan, some needing multiple doses this first week of 2021 in Wheeling. Now, police are issuing a public alert.
The Wheeling Police Department wants to alert the public to a spike in opioid-related overdoses that have occurred in the city over the last week.
In the last seven days, police and fire department personnel responded to 16 overdoses, with three of those cases being probable deaths. Several victims required multiple doses of naloxone for survival.
Three overdose alert texts were sent out this week via the department’s “Overdose Spike Alert” text messaging system – available for the public to sign up at ohiocountyemergency.com.
According to the department’s crime analyst, the majority of overdoses occurred on Wheeling Island and in the Center/South Wheeling area. The department responded to 230 overdoses in 2020 – the highest yearly total in the last five years.