After three clients tested positive for COVID-19 at St. Benedict’s Homeless Shelter, officials are quarantining most of the remaining clients and staff members until a second round of test results comes back. This instance marks the first positive COVID-19 cases reported at the shelter since the pandemic began.
Executive Director Harry Pedigo said he received a call regarding the first positive case last Monday.
“We specified it was a resident of ours. He was there for eight hours before he went to the doctor for unrelated back pain,” Pedigo said. “They tested him for COVID-19 and he tested positive. He was asymptomatic.”
After that, Pedigo and his staff locked down the facility until all residents could be tested. Audubon Area Community Care Clinic reported two additional COVID-19 positive results, saying both patients were asymptomatic.
Pedigo said those three men were taken to St. Benedict’s Women and Families facility, which was converted back into a quarantine facility for positive cases.
“We did a second round of testing [this Monday] to see if we had any more positive cases,” he said. “We should be able to come out of quarantine [in the next couple of days]. But having two out of 75 test positive is pretty good to me, considering we’ve been gone six months and haven’t had a case until now.”
Pedigo said they currently have 51 people in quarantine due to some refusing to quarantine and leaving against medical advice.
“Fortunately all of the ones that did leave, were negative,” he said. “We have had amazing support during this trying and difficult time.”
Nursing homes, homeless shelters, jails and prison facilities have long been touted as some of the most vulnerable populations for positive COVID-19 cases because of the residents’ close proximity to one another.
In the beginning of the pandemic, St. Benedict’s did not take in new clients, Pedigo said. When Gov. Andy Beshear lifted some restrictions, St. Benedict’s did as well and began taking Daviess County and Ohio County residents in again.
But Pedigo said it’s difficult to tell who has COVID-19 and who doesn’t when dealing with people who show no symptoms.
“They could have it and not know, or you could have it and not know,” he said. “Had it been a few more weeks, it could’ve been a different scenario. The Green River District Health Department said we had a solid mitigation plan, and I am looking to get some good results from this second round of testing.”
However, the financial, emotional and mental strain on St. Benedict’s full- and part-time employees has been paramount since the shelter was forced to go into lockdown. Employees have been overworked because volunteers have been unable to come in. Food has had to be dropped off outside the building instead of being set up inside.
Pedigo said the prayers and support from the community has been helpful during this time, but said anyone who was able to step up and help was more than welcome to do so.
“To keep the two facilities open 24 hours a day with no volunteers and our [limited] staff — we’re not set up for that,” Pedigo said. “Everyone is emotionally and psychologically drained. If we ever needed help, now is the time.”
