A northern Ohio city had at least 15 overdoses in less than 10 hours. The calls had been started from 1 PM on Tuesday. Akron Police Lt. Rick Edwards has informed that by 10:30 PM on Tuesday, around 15 suspected heroin overdoses were reported throughout the city.

Among them a woman and her two daughters, who were found unconscious with a fourth person around 3:30 PM and were rushed to the hospital immediately.

A 44 years old man died of a suspected overdose. An autopsy has been scheduled on Wednesday.

Police has informed that 55 people have died due to heroin overdoses in Akron in 2016. According to the Akron Beacon Journal, Summit County, which stands as one of the major cities in Akron, has witnessed an hike in opioid overdoses since 2012. Forty four people died of heroin overdoses in 2012, compared to the 40 with the same cause of death between 2002 and 2008.

The series of overdoses led the federal regulators announce they they will increase the number of patients that doctors can treat with buprenorphine, or suboxone, which is the most common drug to treat opioid addiction. They will announce on Wednesday that they have planned to push Congress to approve about $1 billion for funding, to increase treatment scopes across the United States for the drug epidemic.

BY Prakriti Neogi