Photo: Contributed

British Columbia's opioid crisis has prompted the province to open new overdose prevention sites, which will offer similar services to supervised-injection sites.

Two sites open today in Vancouver, while another two locations open next week in Victoria and the final two will open in Surrey later this month.

Several more will open this month in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside and another in Victoria.

The province says all the sites are in areas with high numbers of overdoses and are an immediate response while supervised-injection site applications are in development or awaiting approval from Health Canada.

Teams of trained staff will provide people who use illicit drugs with a safe space to be monitored and will be equipped with naloxone, which reverses the effects of opioid overdoses.

Health Minister Terry Lake says the province is seeing an alarming increase in overdose deaths and action is required at all levels to save lives.

Health Canada is reviewing legislation brought in by the previous Conservative government that critics say makes the application process for supervised-injection sites too onerous and time-consuming.