Also, just butting in here, liver damage from alcohol to the extent that it kills you isn't something you get from half a year to a year of drinking. The figures probably shows alcoholics getting an extra push hand from lockdowns and other high-stress stupidities and paying for it.

And (stealthily checking liver cirrhosis in the national health registry) Hepatitis B and C can factor into it, as can fatty liver disease. Seeing as how substance abuse generally reaches a stage of "pop anything to keep the DTs/withdrawal away", it shouldn't be unreasonable to assume that what we are seeing is a sort of "all of the above" aggravated by mandates and lockdowns.