SALEM — The telephone at the home of Salem Mission Executive Director Mark Cote started ringing around 2:30 a.m. yesterday. A staff member at the city's homeless shelter was feeling nauseous and would not be at work. That was followed by two more phone calls from other employees with similar symptoms.
By the time Cote arrived at work yesterday, the situation was worse.
"We had probably 10 or 12 clients who had been up all night vomiting and having diarrhea," he said.
The Health Department yesterday ordered the 34-bed shelter closed to the public this weekend — meaning that the men and women living or working there can come and go, but nobody else can enter.
"I've been instructed by the Board of Health that I shouldn't let anybody in here before Monday," Cote said. The biggest impact will be on residents, many poor and elderly, who eat free meals at the Margin Street mission. It serves lunch daily to about 80 people and dinner to 100.
Health Agent Joanne Scott ordered a sign be posted on the door stating that it was closed to the public due to the stomach illness, and that anyone from the outside who goes to the shelter and has been experiencing those symptoms should be checked by a doctor.
Health officials aren't sure why so many shelter residents and staff are sick, Cote said, but are taking no chances. They interviewed ill shelter guests and found many had stomach ailments.
"It became very clear there was a commonality," the director said.
By the end of the day, more than two dozen shelter residents had gone to the emergency room at the North Shore Medical Center for tests, according to Cote. He expected they would be returning to the shelter last night after being examined.
A total of five staff members also were sick, he said.
In addition to the partial quarantine, the Salem Mission planned to dispose of bed linens and sanitize the building over the weekend.
Officials don't know the origin of the illness or how it started, the director said. However, a woman staying at the shelter was sick earlier in the week with similar symptoms. She had gone to the hospital and returned to the shelter.
Whatever the source of the illness, it spread quickly.
"It's one of those things," Cote said. "People are living in close proximity to one another, and it just started to run wild."
Even with the partial quarantine, several scheduled activities will take place this weekend. The food pantry, which uses a separate entrance, will be open today from 9 a.m. to noon. The rummage sale next door in the former St. Mary's Italian Church building, now the mission's thrift store, also will be held from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Today also is the day of the food drive by the National Association of Letter Carriers. The postal workers will deliver food items to the shelter, but will use a separate entrance.
The director said he expects everything will be back to normal by Monday.
"Hopefully, it has run its course," Cote said.
