The Wednesday before Christmas, three men at the Beacon of Hope men’s shelter learned that they tested positive for COVID-19, according to the shelter’s executive director, Steve Roe.

And in the week that followed, four more men tested positive.

“Our guys are getting sick,” Roe said. “We have more testing positive every day and some are pretty sick.”

Roe announced on Wednesday that the shelter has been locked down.

“I feel I have no choice but to go into lockdown,” he said. “No one in and no one out.”

About 32 men stay at the shelter. The oldest resident is in his late 70s. The youngest is about 25.

The men are confined to the space of the shelter, making it more difficult to keep people totally separated.

Roe said ones who become ill are quarantined to the second floor of the building, which includes a bathroom and shower.

“All the positive cases go to the very top floor and we take them their food every day, everything they need,” Roe said. “We take up and down to them. Some of these guys have been pretty sick. I mean, they are down.”

The Iowa Department of Public Health reported 1,652 new positive COVID-19 cases on Wednesday with 10 additional deaths.

The state’s coronavirus website lists Webster County with a 14-day positivity rate of 15%.

Roe said one particular resident has a history of lung issues.

“There’s concerns about blood clots with him,” he said. “We are just going to keep monitoring them. That’s about all we can do.”

The goal is to have every man tested within the week.

“I am pretty sure we have a fair number yet that are probably positive,” Roe said. “We just haven’t had them out there to be tested.”

The Webster County Public Health Department offers mass testing for some businesses and for essential workers, according to Kelli Bloomquist, public information officer for the department. She said businesses have to meet a certain criteria to have mass testing. The department did provide mass testing at the Fort Dodge Correctional Facility earlier in the year, for example.

On Wednesday, Roe said he was told by the department that it did not offer mass testing. Bloomquist reiterated that the health department is not a test site.

Kari Prescott, director of Webster County Public Health, said Roe has been encouraged to take symptomatic men to Community Health Center for rapid testing.

“We have been taking a few guys out at a time to the Community Health drive-thru,” Roe said. “We are just in the beginning phases of what we’ll be dealing with. The lockdown will depend on guys getting sick so in a perfect world, I would say maybe two weeks, but the problem is if we continue to have the virus being spread throughout the whole mission, it’s really hard to tell how long this will go on, really.”

Prescott said when the Beacon of Hope was impacted by the virus earlier in the year, the health department treated the individuals as a family unit since they are living under the same roof.

“Thus any individual who becomes symptomatic is encouraged to go to Community Health Center for rapid testing,” Prescott said. “This is the same guidance that we provide to families — to isolate with doors and by floors and to get tested if symptomatic.”

Roe said not having the mass testing makes it difficult to have the men tested in a timely manner.

“The toughest part is the fact that there is no mass testing, so we have to take the guys out to the drive-thru, making appointments and stuff like that,” Roe said. “With 30-some guys, it takes a while. I am hoping by the end of the week we have them all tested. But then as they get sick we will have to have them retested. I’m assuming that’s how it would work.”

The Second Chance Thrift Store, typically operated by the men of the Beacon, will remain open at this time, Roe said.

“Right now the thrift store is open,” Roe said. “I don’t know how long it will be open. If I have to I will shut it down. Right now we don’t have anyone over there working from our mission. All the guys have been pulled back from that area. We might wind up needing to shut down because of lack of help.”

Roe compared the virus to Russian Roulette.

“All these people get off and don’t have any sickness and then there’s one guy that gets shot — he gets really sick and almost dies or could die,” he said. “Well, we don’t want to lose any of our guys.”