Emergency medical services workers in Louisville, Ky., fielded two drug overdose calls per hour over a 32 hour timespan beginning early Feb. 9, according to The New York Times.
The spike in overdose calls marked the largest of its kind in 2017, beating out 25 such calls over the same time period the week prior. In 2016, there were 6,879 overdose calls in Louisville, up from 4,642 in 2015, according to Mitchell Burmeister, a spokesman for the Louisville emergency medical services.
"We put out an advisory to our crews that it was a little bit higher than normal, and we are trying to make sure that there is nothing more systematic," Mr. Burmeister told the Times.
Mr. Burmeister could not confirm the cause of the overdoses.
With 29.9 opioid-related overdose deaths per 100,000 people in 2015, Kentucky has been one of the states hit hardest by the opioid epidemic.
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