WA county plans to use motel as coronavirus quarantine despite city’s legal action
As cases of coronavirus spike in Washington, a county bought a motel to house those infected. The city tried to take legal action.
King County officials bought an Econo Lodge in Kent, about 20 miles from Seattle, King5 News reported. It could serve more than 80 patients and cost more than $4 million, according to the station.
Kent city officials, however, were worried about the decision to use the motel as a public-health quarantine facility, King5 News reported. They said city officials were not informed of the county’s decision.
Kent Mayor Dana Ralph announced Friday that the city planned to file a restraining order against King County to prevent the motel from becoming a coronavirus quarantine site, KOMO News reported.
“We were not consulted in any way about this,” Ralph told KOMO News. “This is a guinea pig for this mass quarantine facility.”
King County judge denied that temporary restraining order Friday evening, according to a county news release.
“The motel in Kent was the only site on the market that included separate HVAC in each unit, and separate doors to the outside,” King County Executive Dow Constantine said in the news release. “King County will continue to identify and acquire properties in all parts of the county to ensure residents, including health care workers and first-responders who come into contact with COVID-19, are housed appropriately.”
Earlier this week, Ralph said she was concerned that using the motel for quarantine could cause major public health problems.
“We are very concerned about the public health and safety implications this has for our community,” Ralph told The Seattle Times. “They are replicating and bringing a situation similar in scale to the Life Care Center of Kirkland and dropping it off in Kent.”
Her statement refers to the care facility in Kirkland that has been tied to several coronavirus deaths, the newspaper reported. Additionally, Ralph told King5 News that she is worried about the safety implications of turning the motel in Kent into a quarantine site.
“We firmly believe this is an equity issue,” Ralph told King5 News. “The county intends to bring sick people from wealthier and less diverse communities and drop them off in Kent without regard for our community or the people in it.”
County officials say hospital beds should be reserved for the most serious coronavirus cases, and they have been working to find other options to isolate those who are sick, such as the motel, KIRO 7 reported.
“We want to make sure hospital capacity is not being taken up by people who need to be in isolation or recovery. We need the hospital capacity for people who need treatment now,” King County Executive Dow Constantine told KIRO7.
This story was originally published March 4, 2020 at 5:13 PM.