In recent weeks, news of the unfolding COVID-19 pandemic has eclipsed a different kind of public health crisis that has taken some 750,000 lives nationwide in the last two decades: The opioid epidemic.

Since 2016, the number of yearly deaths in Massachusetts attributed to opioid overdose has risen from 547 the first year of documentation to 2,097 most recently. In Franklin County, the increase has been drastic: From 2010 to 2018, the Department of Public Health recorded 104 opioid-related deaths in Franklin County. The region’s year-over-year number of recorded overdose deaths has risen steadily from six deaths in 2010 to 22 most recently.

The coronavirus pandemic could make things worse.

“The Opioid Task Force is extremely concerned that the required and lifesaving measures to prevent the community transmission of COVID-19, which we fully support, will exacerbate the conditions that contribute to fatal and non-fatal drug overdoses,” said Debra McLaughlin, coordinator for the Greenfield-based Opioid Task Force of Franklin County and the North Quabbin Region, in an article published in Saturday’s Life and Times section.

As of the most recent data from November of last year, McLaughlin said the rate was on pace to surpass last year’s record number of opioid-related deaths even before the current health crisis.

Public health officials like McLaughlin along with the recovery community at large have expressed concern for those facing down addiction — especially people in the early stages of recovery.

The social isolation policies intended to prevent transmission of the coronavirus stand in direct opposition to a cornerstone of recovery: Community support.

“Addiction is very much a disease of isolation. This is playing right into the devil’s hands, in many ways,” said Levin Schwartz, a licensed clinical social worker and assistant deputy superintendent of the Greenfield-based Franklin County Sheriff’s Office’s Clinical and Reentry Services. “One of the main points of resilience is sticking together and being together as people. That’s how people in recovery get by. Now, we are having to isolate. The question is, how do we stick together in isolation?”

In these challenging times, the region’s recovery community is rising to the task at hand — organizers of Alcoholics Anonymous meetings are hosting them online; health care workers are logging long hours; social workers are hitting the pavement to connect with those most vulnerable among us.

The need is dire.

But while there are many working to meet the challenge at a local level, the state’s response isn’t helping. Gov. Charlie Baker’s recent business lockdown order forced the closure of state-funded service organizations like The RECOVER Project in Greenfield and The North Quabbin Recovery Center in Athol.

These organizations provide essential services for those trying to escape addiction. Among other things, they serve as community spaces where those in recovery can seek help.

The COVID-19 crisis poses a catch-22 for public health professionals: On the one hand, structured meetings are an integral part of the recovery process; on the other, because IV drug use can make users immunocompromised, some are at an increased risk of contracting the coronavirus.

It was this latter public health concern that prompted state officials to close recovery centers.

In so doing, though, a larger problem has been created, according to Peggy Vezina, program director at the RECOVER Project.

“Folks in early recovery really need the connection. And, these folks don’t have access to a lot of the online meetings that are going on,” she said. With nowhere safe to go for help, Vezina said those in recovery could try to create community themselves without taking proper coronavirus prevention precautions — putting themselves at risk.

The alternative, not meeting at all, is just as problematic.

From the newsroom, we’ve watched the opioid epidemic wreak havoc on our region over the last decade. We’ve lost loved ones; we’ve seen bright lights in the community be snuffed out; we’ve seen friends be taken by addiction — a disease that’s just as terrible as COVID-19. In conjunction, the joint pandemic-epidemic public health crisis poses an even more deadly threat for those in recovery.

In this, Franklin County’s community has a duty to protect those most vulnerable among us.

Individually, we must all heed the advice of those in the trenches — stay at home; wash your hands; distance yourself for the good of others. Likewise, we call on the state to reopen recovery centers like The RECOVER Project, which provide services that are especially essential right now. Yes, making these spaces available poses a health risk — one that could be controlled by taking proper sanitization precautions and maintaining distancing standards.

Keeping them closed could prove to be far worse.