Addressing COVID-19 Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Description, Adaptation, and Early Findings of a Multiagency Response in Boston.

Addressing COVID-19 Among People Experiencing Homelessness: Description, Adaptation, and Early Findings of a Multiagency Response in Boston. Public Health Rep. 2020 Jun 09;:33354920936227 Authors: Baggett TP, Racine MW, Lewis E, De Las Nueces D, O'Connell JJ, Bock B, Gaeta JM Abstract People experiencing homelessness are at high risk for coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). In March 2020, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, in partnership with city and state public health agencies, municipal leaders, and homeless service providers, developed and implemented a citywide COVID-19 care model for this vulnerable population. Components included symptom screening at shelter front doors, expedited testing at pop-up sites, isolation and management venues for symptomatic people under investigation and for people with confirmed disease, quarantine venues for asymptomatic exposed people, and contact investigation and tracing. Real-time disease surveillance efforts in a large shelter outbreak of COVID-19 during the third week of operations illustrated the need for several adaptations to the care model to better respond to the local epidemiology of illness among people experiencing homelessness. Symptom screening was de-emphasized given the high number of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic infections discovered during mass testing; contact tracing and quarantining were phased out under the assumption of universal exposure among the she...
Source: Public Health Reports - Category: International Medicine & Public Health Tags: Public Health Rep Source Type: research