The Salvation Army screens about 500 Fort Worth homeless people a day for coronavirus
Nearly 500 homeless people per day visit the Salvation Army’s Fort Worth facility each day, and every one of them is being screened for coronavirus.
“In our intake process, with folks coming off the street, we start by asking them those questions. ‘Do you have a cough? Do you have a fever?’ ” Beckie Wash, executive director of the J.E. and L.E Mabee Social Service Center in Fort Worth, said in an interview.
The center at 1855 E. Lancaster Ave. just east of downtown Fort Worth sees an average of 486 people per day, including about 220 people who spend the night. Others visit the center for hot meals, counseling and other services.
To make sure that everyone who enters the Mabee Center is screened, the Salvation Army this week has asked many of its 42 employees who normally work in the back of the center to move up front to the intake area.
Also, a special quarantine area has been set up for anyone who staff members think may have been exposed to coronavirus, also known as COVID-19. But so far, Wach said, no such cases have been reported.
It’s not unusual for patrons at the Salvation Army shelter to require medical assistance for influenza or other diseases, she added, and when that happens the staff calls for an ambulance and the patients are typically taken to John Peter Smith Hospital.
Workers also are making an extra effort to clean and disinfect all areas of the Mabee Center, including the sleeping quarters, she said.
“Our first focus is to make sure, since we do have high-traffic areas, we make sure people feel welcome and make sure we are taking of them as well,” she said.
So far, the Salvation Army hasn’t canceled any services, Wach said, although a discussion is taking place about whether food pantry services in which fresh fruits, prepared meals and other perishables donated from the Fort Worth community might soon have to be temporarily halted, just to limit the number of people gathering at the shelter, she said.
A final decision on that is pending.
And, if a coronavirus test involving someone at the shelter were to come back positive, Wach said, the facility has a plan for quarantining staff and guests.
