Salvation Army shelter reopens after false COVID-19 report
The Salvation Army shelter in Las Vegas closed Saturday after receiving word that someone had tested positive for COVID-19, but it reopened Sunday after determining the report was false.
About 220 to 230 people were directed to other shelters, including the city’s Courtyard Homeless Resource Center nearby, Juan Salinas, the agency’s director of social services, said Monday.
“We took the necessary precautions and disinfected everything, and once we found out on Sunday that the test was negative, we reopened the shelter because we didn’t want people out on the streets,” Salinas said.
Salinas said he could not say whether the person who was tested for COVID-19 had been a guest or an employee at the shelter at 35 W. Owens Ave.
Last week, after Catholic Charities of Southern Nevada, which normally sleeps about 500 men, reopened at half-capacity after an employee and guest tested positive for the virus, the Salvation Army added 30 beds downstairs, Salinas said.
It will continue to make those available for the foreseeable future, Salinas said. The shelter also passed out more than 2,000 pandemic kits to homeless residents and is continuing to implement federal social distancing measures.
“Everything’s OK now. It’s safe for the residents to be here,” he said.
Contact Briana Erickson at berickson@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-5244. Follow @ByBrianaE on Twitter.