Doctors Without Borders (MSF) is designing a 400-bed facility for homeless people in Toronto in its first Canadian project, a top official said on Tuesday, prompted by the risks posed by COVID-19 to vulnerable sections of society.
MSF’s move comes as advocates are calling for faster action to prevent the spread of the virus among a population uniquely at risk of being infected and infecting others.
“Rarely do we consider actually doing operations in the context where there are healthy, functional health systems and standards of living are generally high,” MSF Canada executive director Joseph Belliveau said. “But COVID is changing the playing field.”
Photo: Reuters
A spokeswoman for Inner City Health Associates, which will provide clinical services at the facility, said it would be up and running in about 10 days.
The city and province of Ontario are sharing the cost, which has yet to be determined.
MSF is sharing its expertise with local health workers to design the coronavirus facility for the homeless, Belliveau said.
The group is also considering taking on projects with other vulnerable populations in Canada — indigenous communities and the elderly in long-term care facilities, which have been hardest hit by COVID-19.
Thirty homeless people in Toronto have already tested positive for COVID-19, including 11 people in a shelter specifically for refugees, the city said on Tuesday.
The death toll in Canada from the coronavirus outbreak reached 900, the latest government data showed.
Homeless individuals cannot meet the demands of social distancing. They share washrooms and sleep on bunk beds or mats centimeters away from one another, making contagion likely.
They also often suffer underlying medical conditions that make the illness more serious when it does break out.
A study by Health Providers Against Poverty found Toronto’s shelters were staffed by workers who often lack basic personal protective equipment, making them more likely to be infected and infect others.
“This is a public health emergency on top of a public health emergency,” said Janice Abbott, chief executive of Atira, which works with homeless and at-risk women in Vancouver.
With coffee shops and 24-hour fast-food restaurants, where those without homes often spend time, shut down to prevent the spread of the virus, some doctors are keeping homeless people longer in emergency rooms, putting a greater burden on already stretched hospitals, Toronto doctor Kate Hayman said.
“For many, many years, we’ve been discharging people into homelessness without hesitating. And homelessness is a life-threatening condition. But with COVID, homelessness has become acutely a life-threatening condition,” she said.
Toronto, which is Canada’s most-populous city, has placed just over 6 percent of its more than 7,000 homeless people in hotel rooms, a city spokeswoman said in an e-mail.
That is not enough, said family physician Samantha Green, who helped author the study that found unsafe conditions in many city shelters, adding: “They need to move much, much, much faster... These are extraordinary times and the city needs to be taking extraordinary measures.”
An endangered baby pygmy hippopotamus that shot to social media stardom in Thailand has become a lucrative source of income for her home zoo, quadrupling its ticket sales, the institution said Thursday. Moo Deng, whose name in Thai means “bouncy pork,” has drawn tens of thousands of visitors to Khao Kheow Open Zoo this month. The two-month-old pygmy hippo went viral on TikTok and Instagram for her cheeky antics, inspiring merchandise, memes and even craft tutorials on how to make crocheted or cake-based Moo Dengs at home. A zoo spokesperson said that ticket sales from the start of September to Wednesday reached almost
‘BARBAROUS ACTS’: The captain of the fishing vessel said that people in checkered clothes beat them with iron bars and that he fell unconscious for about an hour Ten Vietnamese fishers were violently robbed in the South China Sea, state media reported yesterday, with an official saying the attackers came from Chinese-flagged vessels. The men were reportedly beaten with iron bars and robbed of thousands of dollars of fish and equipment on Sunday off the Paracel Islands (Xisha Islands, 西沙群島), which Taiwan claims, as do Vietnam, China, Brunei, Malaysia and the Philippines. Vietnamese media did not identify the nationalities of the attackers, but Phung Ba Vuong, an official in central Quang Ngai province, told reporters: “They were Chinese, [the boats had] Chinese flags.” Four of the 10-man Vietnamese crew were rushed
CHINESE ICBM: The missile landed near the EEZ of French Polynesia, much to the surprise and concern of the president, who sent a letter of protest to Beijing Fijian President Ratu Wiliame Katonivere called for “respect for our region” and a stop to missile tests in the Pacific Ocean, after China launched an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM). In a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York on Thursday, Katonivere recalled the Pacific Ocean’s history as a nuclear weapons testing ground, and noted Wednesday’s rare launch by China of an ICBM. “There was a unilateral test firing of a ballistic missile into the Pacific Ocean. We urge respect for our region and call for cessation of such action,” he said. The ICBM, carrying a dummy warhead, was launched by the
As violence between Israel and Hezbollah escalates, Iran is walking a tightrope by supporting Hezbollah without being dragged into a full-blown conflict and playing into its enemy’s hands. With a focus on easing its isolation and reviving its battered economy, Iran is aware that war could complicate efforts to secure relief from crippling sanctions. Cross-border fire between Israel and Hezbollah, sparked by Hamas’ attack on Israel on Oct. 7 last year, has intensified, especially after last week’s sabotage on Hezbollah’s communications that killed 39 people. Israeli airstrikes on Hezbollah strongholds in Lebanon followed, killing hundreds. Hezbollah retaliated with rocket barrages. Despite the surge in
RSS