“We went from almost no one to a huge influx of COVID-positive people, with the really interesting twist that most of them were asymptomatic, they did not have symptoms,” Jim O’Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless, said in a recent interview with Boston.com."
“The Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program began testing people with symptoms and traced a cluster back to the Pine Street Inn. After securing testing for everyone at the shelter, they discovered 146 of the 397 people tested were positive by asymptomatic, WBUR reported.”
“It was like a double knockout punch. The number of positives was shocking, but the fact that 100 percent of the positives had no symptoms was equally shocking,” said Dr. Jim O’Connell, President of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which gives medical care at the city’s shelters.”
“My big concern is that we don’t know right now the extent of the virus in any of these larger shelters anywhere in the country,” O’Connell says. “We realize that there’s apt to be a whole lot of asymptomatic spread in these shelters…We should be protecting these people.”
“For the first few weeks of the outbreak, Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program tested only people who showed symptoms. A dozen tested positive. There weren’t enough test kits from the state to check everyone else.”
But it’s not only the big medical institutions that are receiving support. Project Do Something Boston is also getting a supply to share with Boston Health Care for the Homeless. “They’re the people who are out there on the front lines screening and treating our homeless friends,” said Robert Morgan from Project Do Something.
HELPIS, founded in 2012 by Burlington resident Joyce Deliyiannis to promote and encourage kind and charitable deeds, is also seeing increased need. Board member Karen Meyers said “There are significantly more requests for food, diapers, wipes, and baby formula,” and many requests from medical facilities for masks, gloves and other safety equipment.
Meyers said they recently delivered hundreds of boxes of medical supplies, toilet paper, paper towels, and snacks to Boston Health Care for the Homeless.
The couple donated to the Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program. This act of kindness earned Jackie and Erin VA Hero of the Week honors, proudly presented by VA Healthcare.
All patients at the facility have tested positive for COVID-19, according to Mayor Marty Walsh’s office. The field hospital is a collaboration with the offices of Mayor Marty Walsh and Governor Charlie Baker, and Partners HealthCare, Ascension and Boston Health Care for the Homeless."
