Outbreak declared at Soul's Harbour Rescue Mission in Regina
A COVID-19 outbreak has been declared at Soul's Harbour Rescue Mission in Regina, but the organization's executive director says services are continuing as normal for now.
The province declared the outbreak on Dec. 30, 2020. Outbreak are declared when two or more people at a location test positive.
Soul's Harbour executive director Joseph Miller said the mission has only two cases and they are both at the independent housing facility.
"These are two independent tenants and one of them went out a lot, and the other one lived on the same floor and interacted," Miller said.
The mission runs the housing facility for people who are hard to house. The province confirmed that even though "homeless shelter" is listed as the site of the outbreak on the website, the outbreak is only in the housing facility on the fourth floor.
Miller said one of the positive people has been moved from Soul's Harbour to a provincial isolation facility, and the second has been moved to a hospital for further care.
"We do what we can as an organization," Miller said. "What we can't control is individual behaviour in their suite. People are independent in independent living and they come and go."
We still want to make sure that the most vulnerable and the most needy are getting basic humanitarian needs. - Joseph Miller
Miller said the organization is still offering help to the vulnerable, including takeout meal service.
"The delivery of our services, it's still happening, the way we do things has changed," Miller said. "We have enhanced screening protocols. We have extensive use of PPE [personal protective equipment]."
He said an inspection from the Saskatchewan Health Authority found protocols to be sufficient.
"We still wanted to deliver the services we do and we still want to make sure that the most vulnerable and the most needy are getting basic humanitarian needs," he said.
Miller said no one else is currently isolated, but all staff members and tenants on the same floor as the positive cases are being tested. He said the results of those tests are still pending.
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