COVID-19 outbreak in shelters sparks calls for better testing, social distancing
Thestar.com
April 14, 2020
David Rider and Francine Kopun
A shelter in downtown Toronto housing refugees is now reporting 12 cases of COVID-19 among staff and 11 among residents, leading to calls for better care for the city’s most vulnerable.
“This is a serious outbreak,” said Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and advocate for the homeless. “It’s not acceptable.”
Willowdale Welcome Centre, at Yonge Street and Drewry Avenue, currently houses 230 refugees, mostly from Nigeria and Uganda, according to Patricia Mueller, chief executive officer of Homes First Society, which operates more than 20 shelters and homes in the city.
Funded by the city of Toronto, Willowdale opened late last year.
“I don’t know what happened, I’m not a trained epidemiologist. That’s for public health to see what they can do tracing-wise, however, I do know that people are people,” said Mueller.
“Even though we have signs up to say ‘wash your hands,’ even though we have screening, cleaning and monitoring systems in place, for whatever reason, people have either not been practising physical distancing or they have not been washing their hands or they’ve been touching their face, all those things.”
Late Monday afternoon, Toronto’s medical officer of health, Dr. Eileen de Villa, said there were 25 COVID-19 cases at seven shelters in the city. That number may not include all of the 11 resident cases at Willowdale or the 12 staff, numbers which were updated by Mueller after de Villa made her comments.
People who work in the shelter community, which includes shelters for refugees, have called on the city to improve the situation in facilities where people live together closely, sometimes in bunk beds.
On Monday, more than 300 physicians and nurse practitioners working in acute care hospital and community settings, including clinics, boarding homes and shelters and respites, signed a letter calling for more and better supports for people experiencing homelessness and precarious housing.
“We are seeing first hand the extreme toll that COVID-19 is taking on people who are the most marginalized. Our clients are no longer able to access many of the services they require for survival, including libraries, drop-ins, some food banks and day programs,” according to the letter.
“Conditions in Toronto’s shelters, boarding homes, 24-hour drop-ins and respite centres do not allow for physical distancing, putting both clients and staff at high risk for COVID-19.”
They are calling for testing to be conducted in shelters and other facilities, and for the city to rapidly open more than 7,000 hotel rooms, now sitting empty, as well as housing units and student residences to house people experiencing homelessness in a way that allows them to maintain a safe distance from others.
The number of homeless in the city has been estimated at 8,000.
Also on Monday, Inner City Health Associates (ICHA), Canada’s largest health-care organization specializing in the care of people experiencing homelessness, announced it is partnering with Medecins Sans Frontières (MSF) to provide help at a COVID-19 recovery site for people experiencing homelessness.
MSF will provide technical and logistical advice and ICHA will run the site. It is the first time MSF has provided such assistance in Canada.
The 400-bed COVID-19 recovery site is slated to open soon, at a location to be announced.
De Villa said more information on the shelter situation would be provided on Tuesday.
According to de Villa, there are 39 long-term-care homes in the city with more than one case of COVID-19 and 50 deaths.
