Homelessness outreach workers see growing number of COVID cases at Fredericton tent sites
CBC
"Numerous" cases of COVID-19 have been identified in tent sites used by homeless people in Fredericton in the last couple of months, according to Dr. Sara Davidson of the Riverstone Recovery Centre.
Three people recently tested positive at the site near Government House, Davidson said.
Outreach workers and nurses from Riverstone have been going to tent sites around the city at least once a week, she said, to administer point-of-care, or rapid, COVID tests.
"Any word that someone has symptoms then we go out and we test everybody," she said.
When people have tested positive, the outreach workers have arranged followup PCR tests, and worked with the Red Cross to move those infected to isolation motels or the hospital, she said.
Medications and food are brought to them daily through their isolation period and follow-up testing is done on the fifth and tenth days of everyone at the site, she said.
Riverstone workers also communicate with Public Health to facilitate contact tracing, said Davidson, which is difficult for people living in tents.
Outreach workers are planning to return to the site Friday morning, she said, because the last time they went, it was too cold to administer the tests. A certain temperature range is required for the test to work, she said.
Transmission within the tent sites is a "huge" concern, Davidson said, because people are living in close proximity.
"No one can self-isolate when they're living outside congregately."
"One night, when we found someone who was COVID positive and we were arranging getting them to the motel, everyone was crouched around a campfire because it was freezing outside. It's not realistic to say, 'Go hide in your tents'."
On the positive side, a lot of the people that are outside in tents did get vaccinated in the summer, she said.
There have been a few cases, however, where people were "pretty sick" and had to be admitted to hospital.
It's getting harder for outreach workers to keep up with tenters, Davidson said, because some tent sites are being closed down and some people — particularly those who have past trauma — are scattering deeper into the woods.