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Sonoma County health officials are scrambling to understand the extent of a COVID-19 outbreak that has engulfed the county’s largest homeless shelter, potentially infecting more than half of the shelter’s 156 residents.
At least 59 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed at the Sam Jones L. Hall homeless shelter in Santa Rosa on Tuesday, officials said.
A further 26 positive cases are still being reviewed by local public health staff, potentially bringing the total to 85 infections – nearly double the amount reported last week, when city and shelter officials acknowledged for the first time the epidemic.
Nearly half of the affected residents have been vaccinated, officials said.
The growing epidemic has posed a difficult question for government officials and shelter operators who must determine how so many residents became infected at this point in the pandemic.
As of this month, only 13 infections had been detected inside the shelter, all in clusters of cases in January, shelter officials said.
“Something is different. It’s different from what we’ve seen throughout the pandemic, ”said Jennielynn Holmes, homeless services manager at Catholic Charities in Santa Rosa, which runs the shelter.
Holmes and city officials previously said the outbreak was caused by the delta variant, which is much more contagious than the original strain of the virus. County officials said this had not been confirmed and they needed more time to determine if any of the results were indeed the delta variant.
Throughout the pandemic, Holmes said, operators have followed federal health guidelines for homeless shelters – testing residents for COVID-19 every few weeks, cleaning up the site and making sure everyone wears a mask, regardless of vaccination status.
But Clarissa Millarker, a resident of Sam Jones since March, said that before the outbreak, shelter staff were lax in enforcing health protocols, especially masking. Millarker was not tested for COVID-19 until the shelter detected the recent positive cases, she said.
“I have a feeling that it is quite likely that I will be infected,” said Millarker, who is vaccinated.
Millarker, 38, said staff have since stepped up sanitation, been more vigilant on masks and started testing every few days. Still, there is confusion and anger over how the situation has been handled by the shelter operators, she said.
“People are upset, and they are right to be,” she said.
The outbreak at the 213-bed homeless center and a larger increase in cases in the local community prompted county officials to reopen an alternative care site for pandemic cases at the Best Western Dry Creek Inn in Healdsburg . The site, closed only on June 30 amid an ebb in cases of the virus, reopened on Wednesday – a reflection of the sudden surge in COVID-19 infections after a multi-month decline in the county.
The alternative care site, which is expected to remain in operation for at least 30 days, can accommodate up to 60 residents. Residents will have access to an on-site doctor 24 hours a day, officials said.
Many residents of the infected shelters were moved to the site on Wednesday and will continue to be over the next few days, Holmes said. The rest of those who tested positive were isolating themselves in the annex of the 60-bed shelter, which opened in January. Anyone who tests negative stays in the 153-bed main hall.
Catholic Charities staff first became aware of potential exposure on July 2 when two people staying at the shelter tested positive. The shelter was then closed to new residents the same day and county public health staff began testing the shelter’s current residents and staff.
In a joint briefing to city and county officials on the outbreak at the shelter, Dr Sundari Mase, the county’s health official, said the outbreak at the shelter was not surprising given the proximity of the living quarters and the number of people who have not been vaccinated.
Mase has said repeatedly in recent weeks that the current wave of pandemic infections is partly due to unvaccinated individuals. She said many of the shelter’s 150 residents were not vaccinated, although she could not provide an exact number.
“The point is, the virus is more likely to spread in gathering places like homeless shelters,” Mase said. “Vaccinated individuals are more likely to experience a breakthrough in COVID if they are reunited with groups of unvaccinated individuals who become positive. “
Mase said that while COVID-19 vaccines offer protection against the worst medical outcomes, including serious illness and death, they don’t necessarily prevent someone from contracting the virus.
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