COVID surge strikes shelter
68 residents, staff members test positive
Ten months into the pandemic, Ottawa's overcrowded homeless shelter system is now facing what has long been feared — a major COVID-19 outbreak.
Sixty residents and eight staff members at one of the city's homeless shelters have tested positive for COVID-19 in an outbreak that began Jan. 11. It is one of the largest ongoing outbreaks in the city. There is at least one other outbreak, a small one, in a homeless shelter.
The more serious outbreak is by far the largest in a city shelter during the pandemic, and it's something officials have feared.
Wendy Muckle, executive director of Ottawa Inner City Health, which provides health care in the city's shelter system, said a large outbreak in a homeless shelter has long been anticipated because it is so difficult to physically distance people in shelters, especially in winter. When the cold arrived, so did the outbreak.
The city has created some shelter spaces where people can distance and is likely to open more, but most people are sleeping in crowded shelters, where spacing is difficult if not impossible.
“It is so crowded. There are mats on the floor.
“When you are faced with the immediate challenge of do you put this person outside and potentially have them freeze to death tonight or do you let them sleep 12 inches from somebody else and potentially let them spread COVID, it is a little bit of a rock and a hard place,” Muckle said.
“Most of us don't choose the freezing option.”
Dr. Jeff Turnbull, medical director of Inner City Health, told the province's long-term care commission last month that, so far, any cases of COVID-19 in the shelter system have been relatively mild. He hypothesized that could be a sign of a kind of shelter immunity because people using shelters are exposed to so many things.
Meanwhile, Muckle said Inner City Health is ready to vaccinate the more than 1,000 people in the city's shelter system as soon as vaccines are available.
“We are all sick of this. We are ready for the vaccine.”
Ottawa Public Health does not identify which shelters have outbreaks for privacy reasons.
“It is important that individuals who need customized care services, such as a shelter, continue to access them,” Ottawa Public Health said in a statement.
“To protect the privacy and reduce stigma, locations of congregate and specialized care settings in outbreak are not disclosed.”
A spokesperson said OPH is following up with people who have tested positive and is working to arrange safer locations where they can isolate.