The COVID-19 pandemic created barriers to recovery for victims of the opioid epidemic

In 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic claimed lives, underneath it all continued an epidemic that plagued the region and claimed lives long before the coronavirus came to the United States: opioid addiction.

Ohio saw its highest opioid death rate in 10 years last year after the pandemic left unprecedented numbers of people unemployed, depressed and with nowhere to go amid an economic shutdown.