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VIDEO: Kelowna's shelters survive COVID-19 outbreak

Kelowna's emergency shelters were prepared for a COVID-19 outbreak, with hotel rooms available for people with the virus to isolate, but a recent outbreak was bigger than they were prepared for.

"A couple of other shelters got hit first and then it made its way to our Doyle Shelter," said Gospel Mission Executive Director Carmen Rempel.

When 14 clients were tested, 13 came back positive.

Soon all 28 of the hotel rooms that had been secured were occupied.

"So we had nowhere to put them," admitted Rempel. "This was a tipping point, this was a crisis."

Even people sick with COVID-19 were being turned out on the streets to look after themselves.

So, in co-operation with Interior Health, the decision was made to start keeping people with COVID-19 at the shelter.

"They basically divided the shelter in two with tape," she explained. "All of the covid-positive people are going to be in the hot zone, and all of the covid-negative or unknown people would be in the cold zone."

Rempel is quick to credit the staff for continuing their work in these extraordinary circumstances.

"We made it work," she said.

The Doyle Shelter was declared COVID-19 free last week.

Now that the crisis is over, she's feeling pretty good about how the shelter staff rose to the occasion and she's pleased with the outcome.

"Well, everybody lived," she said. "So that's fantastic."

"It certainly had some high adrenaline moments and some big, tough decisions but at the end of it, we have healthy people," she added.

"And my staff are all absolute heroes."

Since then more hotel space has been secured so that the shelters no longer have to look after people testing positive.

To avoid future outbreaks shelters now do rapid testing when clients are taken in.



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