A user of the shelter set up by the Cabildo in the Sports City has tested positive for coronavirus and it has been decided to confine the 89 homeless people who are currently using the facilities, "to prevent them from being exposed to the virus given that the incidence has increased greatly in Arrecife."
This was confirmed by the president of the Red Cross in Lanzarote, Tamar Luis Placeres, who explained that the user who tested positive was put "in isolation" in the facilities last Monday morning, after starting "with diarrhea" at night.
In addition to him, two other users who also had symptoms were isolated, although in their case they tested negative for the Covid test that was performed on them. "Now they are all asymptomatic," said the president of the Red Cross.
However, after one of them tested positive for coronavirus, it has been decided that the rest will remain in the facilities 24 hours a day, "to prevent them from being vectors of exposure." In this regard, it should be recalled that when the shelter was launched, homeless people were accommodated throughout the day, but on August 12 it was decided to reduce the hours of the facilities, from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 a.m. Now, this has meant that it is back to operating all day, and for now users will not be able to leave the facilities.
"Now they confine us when they have had us wandering the streets for 20 days"
"Now they confine us, when they have had us wandering the streets all day for 20 days," complains a user, who does not quite understand why this measure has now been adopted. In addition, he says that no one has told them that one of them has tested positive for Covid. "They only told us that there were a couple of people isolated," he says.
According to him, what they have been told is that they will have to be confined "for fifteen days" starting this Friday. "The situation is a bit farcical. They have done whatever they want with us and we are outraged," he adds.
This man also criticizes the management of the shelter, due to the fact that "people with different profiles are mixed together." "Because here there are people who have to go to the Drug Dependence Help Center (CAD), people who are here because we can't find work and this is more like a psychiatric hospital than a shelter," he says.
"I had a job interview and I'm going to lose it," says another user, who however points out that "there were people who voluntarily said they didn't want to be quarantined in the shelter and left for the street." "No one forced us to stay here locked up for 15 days," says this man, who explains that in his case he had no choice but to stay because he has "no other place to go."
