Experts complain not enough people — including homeless — are being tested for COVID-19.

With few details about local infections, deaths, outreach workers are worried

“It’s so critical that this information is getting out to the communities that are doing outreach in encampments right now so we can both protect ourselves and actually make sure we are not furthering the spread of COVID-19.”

— Talya Husbands-Hankin, an activist who works with the homeless in Oakland

Every day, while most people hunker down at home in an attempt to stay safely out of reach of the potentially deadly coronavirus, others put themselves at risk, donning masks and gloves and venturing deep into the Bay Area’s homeless camps to help the region’s most vulnerable.

But some officials and service providers worry those front-line responders can’t adequately protect themselves because they lack one key tool — information.

Bay Area health officials have released few details about local infections and deaths — including, in many cases, which cities or neighborhoods patients come from, or how many coronavirus patients are homeless.

Two weeks after the COVID-19 death of a homeless Santa Clara County resident was reported, officials have not identified the encampment where the person was living.

At the same time, experts complain that not enough people — including homeless people — are being tested. As a result, outreach workers taking food, medicine and other services to the homeless don’t have a clear picture of the risk.

“They’re flying blind. It’s Russian roulette for them,”