WARREN – Data indicates there were fewer overdoses in Trumbull County in the first four months of 2018 compared to the same time last year, but officials aren’t convinced fewer deaths and fewer hospital visits for overdoses mean the area’s heroin epidemic is on the decline.

Incomplete data from the Trumbull County Coroner’s Office for the first four months of the year show there was likely 20 fewer fatal accidental overdoses this year than last. There were 38 in 2017, and there appears to have been 18 in 2018.

Data collected from a hospital alert system shows there were 257 fewer cases of people being admitted to local hospitals suffering from drug overdoses during the same time period.

Read more in Thursday’s Tribune Chronicle.