Governor Tom Wolf declared a health disaster Jan. 10 due to the worsening opioid crisis. Unlike a national-level emergency announcement several months ago, this has real and immediate effect.

A collaboration of all the state agencies, including the departments of Health, Drug and Alcohol Programs, the Pennsylvania Emergency Management Agency, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency, and the Pennsylvania State Police, the measure contains 13 initiatives in the war on heroin and opioids.

These include increasing access to the life-saving drug naloxone, easing access to treatment programs in several ways, and expanding access within state government to data from the Prescription Drug Monitoring Program.

Pennsylvania witnessed more than 4,600 overdose deaths in 2016, with numbers increasing in 2017. Hundreds of those were here in the Lehigh Valley.

Bethlehem Health Director Kristen Wenrich said, “In my opinion, in order to impact the number of overdoses, we need to tackle this problem from many different angles (both from the prevention side and treatment side).

“I think Governor Wolf’s disaster declaration is a good starting point in that it’s (1) looking to enhance the data piece which will give us additional information to target our resources more effectively; (2) continuing to increase availability of naloxone; and (3) implementing policies to expand access to treatment.”

Wenrich said this is in addition to several new initiatives which have been enacted locally with the help of state funding recently.

These include continuing education at worksites and pharmacies, a walk-in treatment assistance program at the police department, and increased drug and alcohol assessments at the county jail.

City police and hospital officials did not respond to inquiries.