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The area commander for Salvation Army in Saskatchewan says they’re doing all they can to mitigate the spread of COVID-19.
Major Mike Hoeft said since the beginning, employees worked to ensure the safety of everyone using the facilities.
“We’ve been doing extra cleaning, extra sanitizing, making sure people are staying six feet apart as much as possible,” he said.
On Wednesday, Saskatoon Mayor Charlie Clark held a press conference to speak about the city’s vulnerable population. He explained that multiple people had been showing up to use the community hubs, showing signs of COVID-like symptoms.
Hoeft said the Salvation Army’s employees are “not health care professionals,” but they have been doing their best when faced with those with COVID-like symptoms.
“It’s difficult to tell if people are demonstrating just normal signs of seasonal issues, (such as) colds (or) if it’s actually COVID-19. So we do ask the screening questions to make sure that we’ve got some answers.”
He said if the answers given match up to COVID-19, they take the steps necessary to ensure they get the testing needed.
Hoeft said they are also moving people to private rooms within their facilities and off-site to hotels if they are demonstrating symptoms consistent with COVID-19.
When asked if Hoeft and the Salvation Army supported the mayor’s stance, he said they are continuing to focus on the vulnerable population and their needs.
“What happens at higher levels is something that I will leave to other people to figure out. We have a good working relationship with the Department of Social Services and we’re in contact with them, trying to make sure that we’re responding in the best way that we can (with) this situation.”
On Tuesday, the province of Saskatchewan announced a one-time increase of funding to ten Saskatchewan shelters. Salvation Army Saskatoon and Salvation Army Regina both received a cut of the $171,000 worth of funding, to be split across the ten shelters.
