Saturday, December 5, 2020 - NEWS RELEASE

San Diego, CA - Following a recent round of testing to detect anyone who may have COVID-19 but not show symptoms, 55 additional clients and staff were identified Saturday as positive for the virus at the emergency homeless shelter within the San Diego Convention Center.

The regional agencies responsible for Operation Shelter to Home have long planned for this possibility and immediately implemented pre-established procedures to isolate and treat anyone who tested positive.

These new positive cases at the shelter also come amid a surge in COVID-19 cases across the country, with the United States averaging over 183,000 new cases per day. The number of positive cases in the U.S. now tops 14.5 million, including over 280,000 deaths.

County and service provider staff are notifying all clients who tested positive and will facilitate transportation to a local hotel managed by the County of San Diego for public health use. Staff who tested positive were notified and advised to stay home per protocols. Positive individuals will be kept off-site until it is deemed safe for them to return to the shelter based on federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidelines.

The County of San Diego has made additional testing immediately available for all staff and residents on-site to identify and halt possible further spread. Public health investigators are working with shelter staff to determine whether there is the impact of exposure to others at the Convention Center.

Ongoing and frequent testing, as well as stringent protocols to prevent the spread of illness, have been a critical focus of the operation since it launched in April. There have been over 9,800 tests administered to identify asymptomatic residents, staff or volunteers who may be infected with the virus but show little to no symptoms. Prior to this latest round of testing, there had been fewer than 30 positive results over nine months.

Existing preventive measures being taken at the shelter include:

• Screening clients and staff at the Convention Center daily by temperature check and verbal questionnaire
• Washing and sanitization of hands upon each re-entry into the facility
• Wearing a face covering when moving about or leaving the center
• Prevention and safety announcements every two hours from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. over the public address system
• Cleaning and sanitizing surfaces and the facility frequently
• Evaluating and isolating individuals exhibiting any symptoms of illness and transferring off-site if necessary

Test results conducted at the Convention Center to date:

• 9,836 tests administered
  • 7,266 shelter clients
  • 2,570 staff or volunteers
• 82 positive (cumulative total since April 1) – represents less than 1 percent positivity rate of all tests administered.
• All other test results have come back negative or determined inconclusive.

BACKGROUND ON OPERATION SHELTER TO HOME

Operation Shelter to Home launched on April 1 by moving individuals already in shelters into the San Diego Convention Center to allow for proper physical distancing to help prevent the spread of COVID-19. Because the effects of the pandemic were creating staffing challenges at the City’s various shelters, the program centralized staff in one place to ensure personnel could be efficient even with limited numbers.

One of the core missions of Operation Shelter to Home is to find permanent housing for individuals. So far, the shelter has housed more than 850 individuals and 45 families during the pandemic with an additional 400 in the process of finding a permanent or longer-term housing solution.

The emergency shelter is a collaborative effort between the City of San Diego, County of San Diego, San Diego Housing Commission, Regional Task Force on the Homeless, San Diego Convention Center and homeless service providers, Alpha Project and Father Joe’s Villages.