Virus sweeps through S.F. homeless shelter: 70 cases

Confirming the worst fears of activists trying to protect the homeless community, COVID-19 swept through San Francisco’s largest shelter this week, infecting 70 people.

Sixty-eight residents and two staff members at MSC-South in San Francisco’s SOMA neighborhood have tested positive for the virus, Mayor London Breed said Friday.

“We’ve been preparing for situations like this and we’re responding,” Breed tweeted. “But it is critical that people continue following the Stay Home Order.”

Those who have tested positive will remain in quarantine at MSCSouth, and the Department of Public Health will deploy staff to the shelter to provide medical treatment on-site, Breed said. Any shelter residents who have not tested positive will be moved into hotel rooms.

MSC-South has a capacity of 340 beds, but only about 100 people were living there as of Thursday night, Breed said, thanks to efforts by the city to reduce density and give residents more space to practice social distancing.

“We don’t believe there is any greater risk to the general public,” Dr. Grant Colfax, director of the

Department of Public Health, said. “However, it is a very serious matter. We are very concerned about the health of the people at MSC South. Many have underlying conditions.”

The first two infections at the shelter were confirmed Sunday and reported to the public Monday. City officials immediately quarantined the sick residents in hotel rooms and rushed to disinfect the shelter and pinpoint anyone else who could be infected.

Physicians and health workers screened staff and residents for symptoms, testing anyone who displayed symptoms or who had contact with the infected people. They initially promised to remove anyone who tested positive or had symptoms, or was particularly vulnerable because of age or underlying conditions, and place them in a quarantined hotel room. On Friday they changed their strategy and announced infected residents would be quarantined at the shelter instead.

Overall in San Francisco, health officials said, 797 people have been confirmed to have the coronavirus and 13 people have died. On Friday, 88 patients were in hospitals, and about one-third of those were in intensive care units.