More than 87,200 people in the U.S. died from drug overdoses, primarily related to opioids, in a 12-month period from September 2019 to September 2020, according to the data published Wednesday (April 16). But officials predict there were likely more than 3,000 additional deaths due to overdose that weren't officially reported. That's the highest number of overdose deaths since the opioid epidemic first started in the 1990s, according to The New York Times. It's also a setback from the slight drop in overdose deaths that the U.S. experienced for the first time in decades in 2018. The climb in overdose deaths started in the months leading up to the pandemic but then surged during the pandemic last spring. The number of overdose deaths from September 2019 to September 2020 was 28.8% higher than the overdose deaths from September 2018 to September 2019.