The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention is looking into a cluster of COVID-19 patients linked to a homeless shelter in Boston. Officials tested 397 residents at the Pine Street Inn homeless shelter and found that 146 people had contracted COVID-19.
What was concerning to health officials was that none of the patients who tested positive were showing signs of having the coronavirus.
"It was like a double knockout punch. The number of positives was shocking, but the fact that 100 percent of the positives had no symptoms was equally shocking," said Dr. Jim O'Connell, president of Boston Health Care for the Homeless Program, which provides medical care at the city's shelters, according to WFXT.
The residents who tested positive were moved into isolation. Only one person required hospitalization, and most of the patients are still asymptomatic.
Officials are concerned about what those results mean for the rest of the homeless population in Boston.
"If we did universal testing among the general population, would these numbers be similar?" said Lyndia Downie, president, and executive director at the Pine Street Inn. "I think there are no many asymptomatic people right now. We just don't know. We don't have enough data on universal testing to understand how many asymptomatic people are contagious."
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