With a quarantine facility required to stay in Phase 2, here’s what Whatcom did
Whatcom County has arranged to continue to use the former Motel 6 in Bellingham as an isolation and quarantine site during the new coronavirus pandemic. The original lease expired at the end of July.
“We have contracted through the end of the year,” County Executive Satpal Sidhu said during a County Council committee hearing Tuesday.
Whatcom Unified Command, the multi-agency organization that’s coordinating local pandemic response, has leased the site through November 2020 at $40,000 per month plus utilities, said Amy Cloud, WUC spokeswoman.
Both parties have termination clauses in the new lease, which started Wednesday, July 8, Cloud said.
One room is occupied now, she said, but the site has 57 rooms with a capacity for 77 guests.
Meals and laundry services are provided for those who need a room.
It’s designed to allow people who live in crowded homes or who are homeless to isolate themselves and quarantine to limit virus spread, The Bellingham Herald previously reported.
It’s for those who have mild cases of the virus and can take care of themselves.
“That’s the only facility we have. If we don’t have a facility we cannot stay in Phase 2,” Sidhu told the council.
Sidhu discussed the possibility of a shared arrangement if a second isolation and/or quarantine location is needed for people who have tested positive for COVID-19 or who might have been exposed to the virus.
“We are not going to have additional facilities,” Sidhu said. “But we are planning, we are thinking, and we thought that we can work with Skagit and work with Snohomish counties if there is an overflow that we can share the facilities with each other and the same we’d be offering ours to them.”
Whatcom Unified Command opened the isolation and quarantine facility on April 23 and applied for $1.34 million in reimbursement funds from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
Cloud said rent from April to June was about $77,000 a month plus $50 per guest per night.
Whatcom Unified Command told The Herald 61 people have used the facility since it opened, resulting in 353 bed days as of Thursday, July 9. Through June 29, the longest any one person stayed at the shelter was 19 days, with the average stay at six days.
This story was originally published July 10, 2020 at 5:00 AM.
