SPOKANE, Wash — The Union Gospel Mission Men’s Shelter in Spokane will reopen to new intakes at 11 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 14.
The shelter has been shut down since Thursday, Feb. 4 due to a COVID-19 outbreak. UGM Director of Marketing and Communications Barbara Comito said the shelter experienced an outbreak of COVID-19 cases with more than 70 people testing positive since Christmas.
In a press release Friday, Comito said the men's shelter only had one positive case this week with no positive tests among its staff and clients. On Feb. 4, five shelter staff were out due to COVID-19, including the shelter manager and director of ministries.
When the shelter reopens, new clients will be assigned a specific sleeping area separate from the rest of the shelter population. Comito said the entire shelter will be screened for COVID symptoms twice daily.
Comito said that the Spokane Regional Health District began testing weekly in early November, and has been doing tests three days a week for about the last month. She said entire shelter testing will continue two to three times a week and will be reevaluated on a weekly basis.
The outbreak will not officially be considered over until the shelter maintains zero new cases for 28 days from Feb. 12, Comito said. Until the outbreak is officially over, the shelter will not have space for the usual 12 overflow, she said.
Comito also said that as soon as someone tests positive, they are transported to an isolation facility and contact tracing is done to determine close contacts. UGM is also quarantined and close contacts are tested, she added.
Comito said since the begin of the pandemic, extra sanitation precautions were added to their cleaning policies. The shelter also reduced bed capacity, dining capacity and encouraged mask wearing. They’ve also adjusted sleeping arrangements, dining arrangements and air filtration, the press release says.
The UGM men’s shelter has been averaging 70 to 80 new intakes a month during the pandemic, according to the press release.
The UGM Crisis Shelter for Women and Children remains open to new intakes.