BAY MINETTE — Despite improvements in dealing with COVID-19, death rates in Baldwin County continue to increase much more than the population increase, Baldwin County Coroner Brian Pierce said Tuesday, Feb. 1.

Pierce told members of the County Commission that the number of cases handled by his office has increased 88 percent since 2012, from 353 to 663 in 2021.

Much of the increase has been in the last two years due to drug overdoses and people not getting medical care due to concerns about COVID-19, Pierce said.

"These are our big two metrics that seem to grow, overdose deaths and, of course, our natural deaths," Pierce said.

Natural deaths, deaths in the home that were investigated by the coroner's office, jumped from 350 to 486 in three years.

"It appears to be from indirect COVID problems due to delayed medical care," Pierce said. "These are natural deaths in the home just because they wouldn't seek medical care."

Pierce said the number of natural deaths is increasing even though programs to deal with COVID-19 are improving.

"We've lived two years through this at this point," Pierce said. "We were much better prepared this past year than we were in 2020. Our supply chain was better. We had proper PPE (personal protective equipment). We had our testing protocols in place."

He said drug overdoses also increased. Pierce began work with the office as a deputy coroner in 2010. For most of his time with the office, the number of drug overdoses averaged about 20 a year.

In 2019, 22 people died from drug overdoses in Baldwin County. In 2020, that number grew to 53. In 2021, 74 people died from drug overdoses in Baldwin County.

"The metric going back six years was around 20 a year and you can see the big increase in the past two years," Pierce said. "The biggest change here is most likely illicit fentanyl as it was popping up in every drug that we found. Not only methamphetamine and heroin, but cocaine. It was even some of it being sprayed on marijuana. Any drugs are bad these days. You don't know what we're getting."

He said the number of deaths from other causes has been about the same in the last three years even though the population has increased.

About 40 deaths each year were attributed to suicides. Blunt-force trauma deaths dropped from 41 to 35 and drownings dropped from 13 to seven. Pierce said homicides account for between seven to nine deaths each year.

"These are not increasing," he said. "These are not responsible for our increased load."
Commissioner Billie Jo Underwood praised the work done by the coroner's office in dealing with the increased caseload.

"We want to support you and we know that the numbers have increased just because the population has increased, but with the pandemic and the drug overdose and that kind of stuff, I hate that we have to deal with this, but you guys are doing an excellent job," she said.