There’s been a surge of drug overdose deaths in British Columbia where carfentanil was detected in the first three months of 2019.

In January, there were 13 recorded cases, while in March, that number is up to at least 19.

Coroners Spokesperson Andy Watson says that’s compared to just 35 overdose deaths in all of 2018 where carfentanil was detected.

“We have noticed province wide, an overall increase in carfentanil detected deaths and certainly you know after a cooling off period in 2018, we’re into double digits for each of the first three months of 2019,” Watson said.

Carfentail was detected in 71 deaths between June and December 2017, the earliest available data from the Coroners Service.

“It’s something that we are monitoring closely,” added Watson, noting they’ll have a more concrete figures at their next public update. “We’re also sharing information with our health authority partners as much in real time as we can.”

“We’ll be looking at that data along with whether or not we’ve seen a continued slight downturn in terms of the number of overall overdose deaths, or if we’ve plateaued similar to what we saw at the end of 2018.”

Of those 19 deaths in March, seven were in the area serviced by Interior Health, prompting them to issue a warning last week.