Virus cluster at LA shelter as governor calls for more tests

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A cluster of coronavirus cases at a second California homeless shelter has infected at least 43 people, health officials said Tuesday, and Gov. Gavin Newsom acknowledged the state's testing of homeless people has been inadequate and promised more.

The cases at Union Rescue Mission in downtown Los Angeles were identified after 200 tests were administered, LA County Public Health Director Dr. Barbara Ferrer said. Only 16 of those who tested positive showed symptoms and results of 30 tests are pending, she said.

Union Rescue Mission is a sprawling complex in the heart of the Skid Row section where for many decades a large segment of the city's homeless population has lived. The mission reported its first positive case on March 28 and after the outbreak was confirmed this week everyone was quarantined on-site and no new homeless residents were allowed to check in.

Ferrer said county officials hoped to increase testing over the next week at shelters and other institutional settings like nursing homes.

“It just makes sense now that we’re able to do more testing both of symptomatic people and asymptomatic people who are very high risk and live in these congregate living situations," she said during the daily county briefing.

Union Rescue Mission officials didn't immediately reply to requests for comment.

California has an estimated 150,000 homeless people, the most in the nation. In the early days of the virus outbreak, Newsom identified the homeless as one of the most vulnerable populations and started Project Roomkey to find and lease 15,000 hotel rooms to get people off the streets.

The program is ramping up now and among those in rooms are 184 people who were moved out of Union Rescue Mission. The hotel rooms set aside are occupied by...