Patricia Doxsey is reporting for the Daily Freeman the number of opioid deaths in Ulster County dropped significantly in 2019 after hitting a five-year high in 2018, County Executive Pat Ryan said February 18. Ryan said in a statement the county recorded 33 opioid deaths in 2019, down from 56 in 2018, a drop of 41 percent. According to the Ulster County Health Department, there has been a marked decline in deaths since July 2019. “The sharp reduction in opioid fatalities is a sign that the steps we have taken to combat this public health crisis are working,” Ryan said. Ryan took office on June 7, 2019, having won a special election in late April, and was then re-elected and started a four-year term on Jan. 1. He made combating the opioid crisis a major part of his agenda, and vowed to reduce the number of opioid-related fatalities in the county by 50 percent by 2021. Opioid-related deaths in Ulster County have fluctuated considerably over the past several years. The news has not been as good in Greene County. Just this week that county's health department issued an alert, reporting that the number of opioid-related overdoses have recently increased. Read the full story in the Daily Freeman.