COVID-19 case identified at Seaton House shelter

A positive case of COVID-19 has been identified at Seaton House, Toronto’s largest shelter.

“The City’s Shelter, Support & Housing Administration Division received confirmation from Toronto Public Health (TPH) that there is a COVID-19 positive client at Seaton House,” the city said in an emailed statement on Tuesday.

It’s the sixth positive case for a client in the shelter system.

Street nurse Cathy Crowe says the city should be moving faster to relocate high-risk individuals into hotel rooms to help prevent the virus from spreading among the city’s vulnerable population. “They’ve got 1,200 rooms and at least 900 of them are sitting empty right now,” Crowe said. “And now we have a case with Seaton House where there (are) easily over 100 people that could have been moved out there last Friday or a week ago. And it didn’t happen.”

The city says 313 clients have moved to hotel spaces so far.

“We are working with Inner City Heath Associates and our partners to identify those at greatest risk to move first,” City of Toronto media relations said in a statement.

Crowe fears an outbreak at Seaton House. “I feel the outbreak today. I feel that it’s just a matter of hours to be quite honest,” she said.

She says the most recent positive case is part of a larger problem of the city not doing enough to protect people in the shelter system. “The city medical officer of health has not even done a direct order to shelters, telling them to move out beds six feet apart, or stuck in bunk beds. They haven’t even done that. And meanwhile, while people wait for hotels, they’re being left in conditions of risk,” Crowe said.

She said if the city’s serious about limiting the spread of COVID-19 in the shelter system, there needs to be a “militarystyle operation” to move people out of shelters in the next 24 to 48 hours.