(Lethbridge News Now)

By David Opinko

Lethbridge Shelter equipped to handle current COVID outbreak

Dec 17, 2020 | 12:55 PM

LETHBRIDGE, AB – An organization that supports homeless and at-risk individuals says they are able to manage the current outbreak of COVID-19 at their facility.

Alpha House runs the Lethbridge Stabilization Centre and Shelter on 2A Ave North.

Alberta Health Services (AHS) first reported the outbreak on November 26. Out of a total of 27 cases there, 17 are active and 10 have recovered.

Executive Director Kathy Christiansen says they have spent much of the year, dating back to March, preparing for if a situation like this occurred.

“We’ve implemented universal screening upon entry and changed some of our cleaning and spacings. We’ve had to reduce the number of spaces we had in our shelter at the time.”

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Since then, Alpha House partnered with AHS to expand its COVID capabilities with the goal of ensuring all staff and clients can remain safe.

“We have an isolation room directly in the shelter so that people who were concerned about going into the general population – we’re not exposing others. We’ve also turned our Stabilization Centre into a quarantine area and we’ll move people into our isolation hotel rooms when we determine that that’s required.”

By the time this outbreak occurred, Christiansen said they had all of their protocols in place and have been able to respond to it effectively.

Since the beginning of the pandemic, around 60 people at the shelter have used the self-isolation facilities.

The most rewarding part for her is learning that those who have accessed these, including the isolation hotel rooms, have done well at following procedures and not risking further spread to the community.

One thing Christiansen wants to focus on going forward is increasing the number of referrals for their clients to access permanent housing once their stay in the isolation rooms has completed.