Homeless shelter characteristics and prevalence of SARS-CoV-2

In this article, the authors have compared the characteristics of five different homeless shelters in Rhode Island, USA, and evaluated the prevalence of Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome Coronavirus-2 (SARS-CoV-2) infection among their residents (n=299) using RT-PCR nasopharyngeal swabbing. The overall prevalence across all shelters was 11.7%; however, a large difference was found between shelters, as 3/5 had no cases while two had 21.6% and 35.3% of positive cases, respectively. The authors concluded that shelters with more transient residents, higher occupation rate, allowance of new residents and absence of daily education had a higher prevalence of SARS-CoV-2 infection. In addition, the authors highlighted the importance of the population density of the neighborhood; in fact, shelters in more densely populated areas had a higher prevalence of COVID-19.