Numerous residents tested positive during a coronavirus pre-screening at a homeless shelter in Budapest. As it turns out, the first person to be diagnosed with the disease returned to the facility from a hospital. His positive test result came back only after his return.
A total of 23 residents tested positive during a coronavirus pre-screening at the homeless shelter on Madridi Road in Budapest, operated by the Hungarian Red Cross, the organization told liberal news site Hvg. Out of the 23 coronavirus residents, the infection was later confirmed by an official test of 9 residents who were taken to hospital on Sunday. The other 14 residents were isolated and are being cared for by five volunteers.
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On Tuesday, the Red Cross confirmed to liberal news site 444.hu that the first resident who tested positive was returned to the facility from a hospital without being isolated there until their test result came back. It arrived only after they had already returned to the shelter.
Last week at their daily briefing, the operative board said that authorities only know about one infected homeless person, however, Budapest Mayor Gergely Karácsony made it clear to Hvg on Monday that the virus has already „reared its head in several facilities.”
He promised that in the coming days, the local government will start testing the social workers, nursing home, and homeless care workers „on their own.”
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The mayor later wrote on Facebook that “there is a good chance of what happened at the homeless shelter is the same as the prior incident at the elderly care homes in Budapest: one of the patients who returned from the hospital infected the others.”
Karácsony has underlined several times in the past weeks that people treated in the hospital shouldn’t be sent back to elderly homes and homeless shelters without first testing negative.
He also wrote letters to Botond Sára, the Government Commissioner in charge of the Budapest Government Office, that hospitals had already sent away those involved during the evaluation of the test in several specific cases.
However, the guide issued by the ministry responsible only requires a negative test if the person goes directly from the hospital to the same shelter they had originally left.
The novel coronavirus epidemic is especially dangerous for those living on the street. Furthermore, homeless shelters are an ideal place for the virus to spread, as there are a lot of people cluttered together, amid poor hygienic conditions, while the fluctuation of people is extremely high.
Also, while hospitals and retirement homes were able to introduce a ban on visitors, this is not an option for homeless shelters as it would mean the people living on the street are left without a place to sleep, eat, or wash their clothes. On top of this, the doctors, nurses, and social workers working in these places have even less access to proper protective equipment than those working in hospitals.
Due to all of this, in early April, the Budapest municipality decided to place elderly and homeless people with poor health conditions in isolation, as they are the most vulnerable to Covid-19.
Featured photo illustration by Márton Mónus/MTI