Use of covid quarantine facility in Bellingham is at its highest. This is one reason why
The majority of the record 30 people staying at Whatcom County’s COVID-19 quarantine and isolation facility are from homeless communities, according to the county.
Exactly how many people linked to two homeless communities are staying at the facility wasn’t known, according to Amy Cloud, spokesperson for Whatcom Unified Command.
The quarantine and isolation facility at the former Motel 6 on Byron Avenue in Bellingham was opened in late April by unified command, the multi-governmental agency that’s directing local COVID-19 pandemic response.
Erika Lautenbach, director for the Whatcom County Health Department, shared the record number at the site with U.S. Rep. Rick Larsen, D-Everett, during his visit Monday, Dec. 14, to a COVID-19 testing site in Lynden run by the health department and Whatcom Unified Command. Officials also talked about vaccine distribution.
People who were part of a recent COVID-19 outbreak between Base Camp, an emergency shelter for the homeless on Cornwall Avenue, and Camp 210, a homeless tent encampment that has been at Bellingham City Hall on Lottie Street since November, are among those staying at the Byron Avenue facility.
“The site has been offered as a place for individuals who had close contact to a positive case to quarantine and as a place for those with some symptoms to stay while waiting for test results,” Cloud said to The Bellingham Herald. ”One goal is to give individuals a pathway to return to Base Camp shelter after a negative test.”
The former Motel 6 has 60 rooms, 58 of which have been available for use as a quarantine and isolation facility. The other two rooms were set aside for support services.
It continues to be open to others who need a place to safely isolate and quarantine, Cloud said.
Lighthouse Mission Ministries, which operates the Base Camp homeless shelter, was notified on Nov. 28 that a homeless man who stayed at the shelter had tested positive for COVID-19.
He told Base Camp staff that he had been staying at the City Hall tent encampment as well.
There have been a total of seven positive cases between the two sites so far. The last positive test was on Dec. 6, Cloud said.
