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'Next 4-5 weeks will be difficult': How Seacoast shelters, nursing homes, jails cope with COVID outbreaks
Foster's Daily Democrat - 12/22/2021
Dec. 22—Caring for people at the Strafford County Warming Center shelter is a lot more complicated amid the current outbreak of COVID-19. Now there is an undisclosed second facility to use for quarantine space.
"Clients testing positive were moved offsite to isolate however we have limited space," said Betsey Andrews Parker, leader of the Community Action Partnership of Strafford County, which runs the shelter. "We are considering contingency plans for how to care for clients onsite if the numbers overwhelm our offsite facility."
Institutions with congregate settings are trying to find ways to cope as the highly transmissible omicron variant of COVID-19 spreads. The Rockingham and Strafford county jails are both facing outbreaks as is the York County jail in Maine. Numerous nursing homes across the Seacoast are in the same situation.
Institutions are ramping up precautions as the numbers surge. New Hampshire reported 19 deaths statewide Tuesday, including five people younger than age 60. The state also reported 7,971 active cases and 437 people hospitalized.
Andrews Parker's team, as of Tuesday, was supporting 14 people in quarantine at the location away from the shelter on Willand Drive in Somersworth. Ten of those people had been at the main shelter this past weekend.
Before the outbreak, the 80-bed shelter was averaging 50 to 60 clients per night. Now the client capacity will be capped at 50 to mitigate spread of the virus, Andrews Parker said.
The hours of the warming center were expanded to open full-time this season, offering help to houseless people beyond only bitter cold days. The staff is implementing additional COVID safety measures, Andrews Parker said.
"Given the high transmission rates in the community and the low vaccination status in the population, we expected to address COVID this season," Andrews Parker said. "Our staff are vaccinated and boosted. We have restocked our masks, sanitizer and ordered additional COVID testing kits to help identify, then isolate COVID positive clients. The next 4-5 weeks will be difficult as we work through the surge."
There will be some new guidelines in effect. This includes: limiting admittance to the shelter to end at 10 p.m. to allow staff to conduct COVID-19 screenings and testing, all clients will be required to test for COVID-19 if exhibiting symptoms, guests must remain on their bunk for the entire stay, eating is limited to their bunks, and masks must be worn at all times except when eating.
The shelter is adjusting its hours, too, closing from noon to 4 p.m. on weekends to allow for cleaning. Community Action Partnership's Drop-In Center also has new guidelines, too, limiting services to appointments and emergencies only for the next 30 days to reduce COVID-19 transmission rates.
Shelter leaders are urging members in the community to take COVID seriously and get vaccinated to help curtail community spread.
My Friend's Place, a 25-bed homeless shelter in Dover, went into quarantine Dec. 14 after a staff member tested positive. While it didn't result in an outbreak, Executive Director Susan Ford said it "was just a matter of time before there was a case."
"We're always looking at state COVID numbers and having a positive case was scary, but we've been lucky so far," Ford said. "While we consider this place a home for everyone living here, we are enforcing a mask policy for those that are not vaccinated, but many of our clients are vaccinated."
Will Arvelo, executive director of Cross Roads House in Portsmouth, said the homeless shelter has experienced some COVID cases, but it's been limited and mitigated fairly quickly so far. The shelter has a two-tier plan for an outbreak that would isolate COVID-positive clients on campus or off-campus at a hotel in Dover.
"If we're hit with huge numbers of the omicron and delta variants and it impacts our population in a significant way, that is where we get concerned," Arvelo said. "We are limited in isolation space. Many of the shelters are struggling to find isolation space, so if any of us are hit hard with COVID cases, we're going to face huge challenges in terms of how we isolate our residents."
While Homeless Center for Strafford County in Rochester hasn't seen any COVID outbreaks yet, Executive Director Tracy Hardekopf said, the team is prepared and everyone in their facility is vaccinated and boosted.
"We have many elderly clients this year with multiple pre existing conditions, so our hope is to keep this entire building COVID-free for their sake," Hardekopf said. "Having a brand new building that was built in the time of a pandemic has allowed us some very specific safety that we otherwise would not have."
Hardekopf said that there is a room set aside to allow a person or family to quarantine away from others for 10 days if non-symptomatic and 14 days if symptomatic. There are vinyl screens to separate each individual's area, the facility has implemented staggered dinner times, and clients are given new linens and new pillows and new comforters, which allows them to take it with them when they move to permanent housing.
The York County jail outbreak stood at 37 people, or one in five inmates, as of Tuesday. New Hampshire recently reported eight incarcerated people with COVID-19 at the Rockingham County jail, plus one staff member.
Strafford County had 20 residents and six staff with the virus last week, but those numbers had dropped as of Tuesday.
"Currently we have five active cases within the inmate population, and three staff members," said Chris Brackett, the Strafford County jail superintendent. "We have a comprehensive testing policy. We test 10 days after a person shows symptom onset, and 10 days after they test positive."
Strafford County jail has two negative pressure cells. Brackett said they were originally designed for tuberculosis exposed inmates, which is no longer an issue.
"But they work really well for our needs now," Bracket said.
The jail also has separate quarantine units.
"When anyone comes in, they go there first," Brackett said "We test them first and then they are there for 14 days, and are tested before they come out of there. Even those who are vaccinated go in there first. We have seen breakthrough cases and while they might not get very sick they can still spread the virus."
It is exceptionally challenging to run such a facility right now, said Brackett.
He credited the COVID-19 testing conducted at the lab at the University of New Hampshire.
"We have sent them 5,836 tests to date," he said. "Before UNH, we used another medical testing service and I know we sent them at lest 1,000 tests. That is not even counting our rapid antigen tests. We test vigorously to keep this out of our general population as much as we possibly can."
Information on where to make vaccination appointments in New Hampshire at pharmacies and other locations is available at vaccines.nh.gov. The state also has fixed vaccination sites with no appointment needed in multiple locations, including in Rochester at Spaulding Commons at 306 North Main St. Details on the fixed vaccination sites can be found at on-sitemedservices.com/vaccinationlocator. Information in Maine is found at maine.gov/covid19/vaccines.
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