EDMONTON — Alberta is introducing an app to help prevent people from overdosing on opioids while alone at home.
The province will begin testing the new Digital Overdose Response System in Calgary this summer and the project is expected to expand to other communities in 2022.
Jason Luan, the associate minister in charge of the addictions file, says most people who fatally overdose do so at home.
The app will automatically alert medical emergency workers if the user is unresponsive to a pre-set timer.
The province estimates 70 per cent of overdose deaths occur in a private home.
In 2020, 1,128 people died in Alberta from opioid overdoses.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 23, 2021.
The Canadian Press
