Saskatoon shelters dealing with Omicron outbreaks
Global News
Nearly all facilities that provide shelter to Saskatoon's vulnerable population are experiencing COVID-19 outbreaks, but representatives say they're still able to provide services.
“We’re getting hit really, really hard,” Saskatoon Tribal Chief Mark Arcand told Global News.
He was speaking about the staff at the Saskatoon Tribal Council’s (STC) Emergency Wellness Centre. The Saskatchewan Government declared a COVID-19 outbreak at the site on Jan. 21.
Nearly all the agencies that shelter homeless and vulnerable people in Saskatoon are dealing with outbreaks.
The STC centre, the YWCA Crisis Shelter and the Brief and Social Detox Unit are just some of the facilities listed on the Government of Saskatchewan’s COVID-19 outbreak list in the past week.
But representatives told Global News they’re still able to deliver services.
Though he didn’t know the exact number of staff who are sick, Arcand said the centre was managing by having part-time and casual workers fill in for the full-time employees who aren’t able to come to work because of COVID-19.
He said the centre is still at (and over) capacity and still providing services, albeit slower than normal because workers are adjusting to their new roles.
“They’re just coming in blind,” he said, “saying, ‘OK, you got to fill in here. Are you going to do this?’”