Cold weather shelters are open across the state and health officials are providing them with guidance during this time of year when sickness quickly spreads.
Caring for unhoused residents at crowded shelters during the winter can be difficult. Many of those seeking shelter are senior citizens, who are typically most at-risk for illness.
Kristen Soto, an epidemiologist with the Connecticut Department of Public Health (DPH), is helping shelters prepare for close quarters during cold and flu season.
“We're telling you to put the most distance between people at the time when there is the greatest need, and you're trying to probably fit the most people in your shelters, and we understand that that's really challenging,” Soto said.
DPH recommends testing shelter residents, particularly seniors, for COVID, RSV and the flu. It is also recommended that shelters offer vaccines and face masks.
“The way that your physical facility is structured, how your day to day operations look, how people move throughout your facility could all sort of help to determine what the risk is of transmission in that setting,” Soto said.
It’s hard to track and control the spread of COVID-19 in crowded shelters, DPH’s Dr. Lynn Sosa said.
“Some of the things we had access to during COVID, like testing and alternate places to house people when they're sick, and unfortunately, those resources are not available anymore,” Sosa said.
The rate of RSV infections are expected to be very high in Connecticut this winter, according to Sosa.
“Older adults are the persons that we would want to prioritize for testing, because they are more likely to have the have more severe symptoms and have to go to the hospital, but they are also the ones that could benefit from the medications that can decrease the severity of the symptoms,” Sosa said.
While flu activity is expected to be low this winter, COVID is expected to be at a moderate level, leaving older unhoused residents at risk of severe sickness.
