Nathan Denette/The Canadian Press
Canada’s largest city announced Sunday that it will start fast-tracking the vaccination of homeless people in order to prevent shelters from becoming incubators for the spread of COVID-19.
The City of Toronto issued the directive as its local homeless people are being hit with fast-spreading COVID-19 variants and as communities across the country consider accelerating their own plans to inoculate those living on the streets.
While Canada’s first round of vaccinations focused on medical workers and seniors’ homes, most in the general population are still awaiting their turn. Meanwhile, public-health officials in large cities have been trying to push homeless people to the front of the line, but must first get clearances from their provinces, which set the priorities for which groups get vaccinated.
Posted: Feb 24, 2021 4:00 AM ET | Last Updated: February 24
Officials say shelters are becoming more crowded and that makes it more difficult to control the spread of COVID-19.(Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
As Ottawa s network of shelters, respite centres and physical distancing centres reach capacity, outbreaks within the system continue to grow and support systems are left playing catch up, trying to get them under control.
According to Ottawa Public Health s (OPH) COVID-19 dashboard, there are five active outbreaks at shelters across the city affecting 252 people. While OPH does not list the names of shelters on its dashboard, cases at one in particular have continued to grow. Two weeks ago it reported 70 positive cases. There are now 108.
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Some residents in Lowertown are upset that an isolation centre for homeless people with COVID-19 has been set up at Le Patro d’Ottawa community centre on Cobourg Street, saying it presents a health and safety risk.
The centre is close to three schools in a densely populated area, say 17 residents in a letter to officials at the city, Ottawa Public Health, the province and shelter operator Ottawa Inner City Health.
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The Ottawa Mission is again accepting new admissions, as long as those individuals have not been in the shelter over the past two weeks to protect against new infections of COVID-19.
“As you know, we were in outbreak status for part of this past month due to positive cases of COVID-19 identified earlier by testing, and therefore our intake was paused accordingly,” spokeswoman Aileen Leo said Wednesday.
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“Our capacity to accept new clients is limited, and therefore, if we exceed this capacity, additional new clients will be diverted to the Tom Brown arena.”