Rent reduced for riders, early budget items approved by Regina Council
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Regina's city council covered a lot of ground in a three-hour meeting on Wednesday. With all members in attendance, coun...
Times have definitely been worse at the Lighthouse, considering where the supported living facility and shelter was in October.
On Oct. 23, the facility was declared as a COVID-19 outbreak location by the Saskatchewan Health Authority (SHA). In early November, the Lighthouse’s executive director, Don Wingels, told 650 CKOM at least 27 positive COVID cases had gone through the facility.
On Thursday, the Lighthouse’s fundraising and communications manager, Anna Pacik, said she didn’t know the exact total, but offered a more general answer to 650 CKOM.
“It was a good amount,” she said. “We survived our outbreak. We’ve been monitoring for any cases … We continue to be monitored (by the SHA) and be able to get our (staff and residents) tested regularly as well.”
Pacik said officials continue to monitor for any other hotspots within the walls of the facility. After the outbreak, operations at the Lighthouse were suspended temporarily.
Although Pacik said the Lighthouse is still on alert for COVID, it has been able to return to some of its original operations.
“We had opened up (to take new clients) in mid-December,” she said. “We are not, unfortunately, a warmup (location) because we simply don’t have the room yet … That space is all taken up by shelter beds (that need0 to be six feet apart.
“We never really moved our operations back into a non-COVID state … We continued to maintain our beds six feet apart. We’ve continued to buy masks and all the hand sanitizers, so nothing has changed in terms of how we’ve approached our COVID management and safety protocols,” Pacik continued.
Through it all, though, Pacik said the community has been nothing but supportive as the facility went through some of its toughest time.
She didn’t have a dollar figure prepared, but said the centre is trying to keep up with Saskatoon’s generosity.
“We’re still actually processing donations from December … In terms of mittens and socks and jackets, we’re just overwhelmed. Our folks will be warm this winter,” she said.
“We’re just really grateful that the community is embracing us with donations of warm weather items and financial donations. We’re just overwhelmed at how our community cares for the Lighthouse. It has been very heartwarming.”