The quarantine facility on Fircrest campus has been an issue I have been following closely the past two weeks. I wanted to share with you below what the King County Public Health and the Washington State Department of Health shared recently with me. Please see their updates from the last couple of days.
Right now, my concern is to best manage the site, ensure public safety and to support the important public health work occurring there. I am confident we share that same goal.
Please don’t hesitate to reach out to me if you have any further questions.
Thank you,
Seattle & King County’s efforts to respond to novel coronavirus (COVID-19):
2/19/2020 Update from Seattle-King County Public Health Director Patty Hayes
This outbreak emerged in Wuhan, China in December 2019 and has now been declared a global public health emergency by the World Health Association. To date, 71,300 people have been infected and at least 1,775 people have died. All but 5 deaths have been in mainland China. There are currently 15 reported cases in the United States, including one case in Snohomish County. There are no cases yet in King County.
For the general American public, who are unlikely to be exposed to the virus, the immediate health risk from COVID-19 is considered low. But we must do everything we can to protect the public’s health. The virus is more contagious and twice as deadly as the seasonal flu. That’s why my staff are fully mobilized to prevent an outbreak in our region; this work involves many levels of activity.
Since the end of January, we have assessed more than 225 people for the COVID-19. We have placed nearly 500 people on symptom monitoring in this same time period. This means we are assessing each person to determine if they develop symptoms and if they need further medical evaluation. These criteria are set by the CDC and implemented at the local public health level. There have been approximately an additional 400 people who have been screened at the airport who are required to self-monitor under the supervision of local public health. These individuals represent travelers coming from mainland China in the past 14 days.
We have also tested all people of interest who have been a known contact of a confirmed case of COVID-19 or who have traveled to the Hubei Province and are showing symptoms. These individuals have been placed in isolation until their test results come back from the CDC. As of today, 16 people in King County have tested negative for COVID-19.
For most individuals, transportation to isolation and isolation itself is coordinated by and paid for by the public health system. For those travelers who are coming in from the Hubei Provence, federal directives require their immediate quarantine. The federal government, state Department of Health and Public Health – Seattle & King County have coordinated this response. But given that travel from the region was halted, the need has not been great.
Seattle-King County Public Health staff are assessing, testing, isolating and monitoring throughout the day and evening, seven days a week. We are also developing educational materials, distributing information and responding to questions from concerned citizens and community leaders. To meet this demand, I am diverting staff away from other essential public health work. The estimated weekly cost of this response is $200,000, and this figure does not represent the new positions I need to hire to ensure our response is sufficient.
No one can predict the trajectory of this outbreak, how long it will last or how expansive it will be. The fact that this virus has caused severe illness and sustained person-to-person spread in China is very concerning, but it is unclear how the situation here in the U.S. will unfold.
Public Health is collaborating closely with experts from the CDC, our colleagues at the state Department of Health, and clinical healthcare providers and systems in King County to obtain and share the latest information and guidance to prevent an outbreak. You can find updates at www.kingcounty.gov/ncov.
2/18/2020 Selection of replies from State Department Of Health Secretary John Wiesman in response to my inquiries:
Subject: Fircrest Coronavirus Quarantine Encampment
We are making public the total number of folks under public health supervision who meet criteria for high or medium risk (which would include anyone in our quarantine housing). We update those numbers every day around 3pm on our website at: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/Coronavirus .
There are a number of advantages to having the quarantine site “in our backyard” at the public health laboratories that we have shared. Testing someone was not one of them. Some that we have discussed include:
- Having the public health staff who need to be present 24/7 to monitor the health of someone in quarantine and make sure their essential needs are taken care of is made much easier when they are right outside the door of our entire incident management team operations. We can better use the staff assigned to the incident this way, and the decision makers are right there to address any issues or unforeseen circumstances that might come up.
- We think having this operation in our backyard reinforces the message that this operation poses no risk to the public as we are working around it every day.
In terms of the wastewater, we will have licensed waste haulers come in with their usual trucks and equipment to dispose of the waste at approved facilities. There is no special handling of the waste.
Facts of the situation
Any person being housed at our site is a healthy individual who is not showing any symptoms of the coronavirus (COVID-19). They may or may not have come into contact with someone infected with the coronavirus, and as a precaution are being monitored to see if they develop any symptoms (fever, cough, respiratory distress). Because they are healthy and the test for COVID-19 is not authorized for use on persons without symptoms, folks at this site don’t undergo testing, unless they develop symptoms.
Should they develop symptoms consistent with COVID-19, they will immediately be safely transported to a medical facility for further evaluation and tested as appropriate. And as you state, COVID-19 is primarily transmitted through droplet spread and one needs to be within 6 feet of someone to be at risk. Therefore, as you state, there is no risk to the surrounding community.
Public Outreach Efforts
- We held two community meetings on Friday, February 7th to share information about this effort and answer any questions. One was an in-person meeting at the Fircrest campus and one was a phone meeting. The in-person meeting had staff, community, parent, and media attendance. Secretary Strange and I shared information on the coronavirus situation, the need to find a place for persons without symptoms who have been to Hubei Province or in household situations with someone diagnosed with coronavirus to distance themselves from others (quarantine), and took their questions and answers. All questions were answered. Overall support for what we were doing, except for one parent who seemed to understand his child was not at risk by this proposed site but still didn’t want it there.
- We followed the in person meeting with a community, parent, and legislator phone call to essentially share the same information and take questions. There were a number of guardians/parents who spoke to not supporting the operation. A number of them indicated they understood having folks in quarantine at the site didn’t pose a risk to their child, but still didn’t like it. Others seemed satisfied with our answers to their questions. I am uncertain how many people were on the phone and while time ran out before all persons had an opportunity to ask their questions, they were directed to the Fircrest leadership for further conversation. DOH is fully prepared to assist Fircrest leadership with any follow up that might be appropriate.
- That afternoon we also held a press conference with media to share the same information. That was widely reported on in local media.
- We also went door to door with a flyer (attached) informing the community, giving them a phone number to call with questions, and website for more information. We believed a website would be most helpful so people could stay current on any new information. At least 500 flyers were distributed to the surrounding community.
- We also posted a notice on the social media website NextDoor to keep people informed.