Update, March 11: Washington state bans large events in three counties to slow spread of COVID-19, governor calls pandemic ‘extremely dangerous’
Public officials are weighing the mandatory cancellation of large public gatherings in the Seattle region, including major sports events, as part of a broader escalation of efforts to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus.
More information could be announced this week, said Patty Hayes, director of Seattle-King County Public Health, in a briefing to the Seattle City Council on Monday. The deliberations come a little more than two weeks before the Seattle Mariners are set to play their March 26 home opener at T-Mobile Park, and a few days after the Seattle Sounders FC kicked off their season at CenturyLink Field.
“We’re in conversations with all the sports teams and the arts venues now,” Hayes told the council, saying that officials “will be looking hard at large gatherings.”
In the case of major sports events, one possibility could be playing games or matches without fans in the stadium, not canceling them entirely. This has happened already in Japan, and it has been under discussion by U.S. professional sports leagues amid the coronavirus outbreak.
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee was asked Sunday on CBS’s “Face The Nation” why the state hadn’t imposed a lockdown on the Seattle region, restricting travel and other movement in the area, similar to what the Italian government ordered over the weekend to combat COVID-19 in a large region of the country.
“We are looking at extending what are voluntary decisions right now,” Inslee said in response. “We are contemplating some next steps … and we are looking to determine whether mandatory measures are required.” He added, “So far, the public is responding very well by making sure that they listen to public health requests. … So that’s working. But we may have to go to the next step.”
Inslee said that doesn’t necessarily mean a widespread quarantine or lockdown, as in Italy, but instead “reducing the number of social activities that are going on.”
Coronavirus Live Updates: The latest COVID-19 developments in Seattle and the world of tech
The governor noted in a previous press conference that he had the authority under a state of emergency declaration to order the cancellation of large public events, but had opted not to exercise it.
In a message to GeekWire on Monday evening, a spokesperson for Inslee said conversations were ongoing but cautioned that nothing had been confirmed.
Washington state and particularly the Seattle region emerged as an early U.S. epicenter for the novel coronavirus, which causes the disease COVID-19. Other states such as New York have also been hard hit. Washington state’s coronavirus case count rose to 162 in the latest count, released Monday.
Major employers across the Seattle region, including tech giants Microsoft and Amazon, are asking employees to work from home for the next few weeks as voluntary steps in line with public health guidance.
Big events in the Seattle region so far have been canceled voluntarily, as well. One high-profile example is Emerald City Comic Con, which was expected to draw nearly 100,000 people to the Washington State Convention Center next weekend. Organizers announced last week that Comic Con would be postponed until summer.
In her remarks to the City Council on Monday, Hayes distinguished between the risks at indoor events like Comic Con and outdoor sports events, “where at least we have open air,” she said.
But even if it Washington state were to escalate its coronavirus restrictions, it wouldn’t yet be at the point of locking down a region or restricting travel. In contrast, after locking down a large region over the weekend, Italy expanded the measure to the entire country on Monday.
During the Seattle City Council briefing, Hayes showed a matrix with different levels of standard interventions, explaining that Washington state is currently at Level 2, involving voluntary isolation of sick people, and voluntary quarantine of people who’ve had contact with others who are sick.
Level 3 would mean involuntary isolation and quarantine, and Level 4 would including mandatory cancellation of major public events and large private gatherings. Level 5 is what Italy has imposed, including preventing non-emergency travel outside the home, and sealing a specific geographic boundary.
Update, 10 a.m. Tuesday March 10: New York state went to Level 5 this morning, announcing a containment zone.around the city of New Rochelle in Westchester County.
BREAKING: NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo announces containment zone around New Rochelle, lasting until 3/25; National Guard to be deployed to assist in food delivery, cleaning.
"This is the single greatest public health challenge we have in the state right now." https://t.co/waOLY1RvC9 pic.twitter.com/ubq6lFo0yH
— ABC News (@ABC) March 10, 2020
In Washington state, Gov. Inslee was asked repeatedly about this topic during a press conference in Olympia, after he said this about the potential for an exponential spread of the disease:
“The number of people who are infected in an epidemic like this will double in the state of Washington unless we take some real action here. And if you do the math, it gets very disturbing. When something doubles every day, it gets to a very large number of very quickly. If there are a thousand people infected today, in seven or eight weeks there could be 64,000 people infected in the state of Washington, if we don’t somehow slow down this epidemic, and the next week it’d be 120,000 and the next week it’d be a quarter million.”
Here’s a transcript of the exchange that followed with reporters.
Q: Many groups have followed the social distancing guidance and have canceled large events. But as you know, 30,000 Sounders fans were at a match in Seattle this [Saturday]. Other countries like Spain and Portugal are already moving to have soccer matches played in empty stadiums and broadcast. Referencing those numbers that you just cited about the doubling, shouldn’t a policy like that also be considered at this time?
Inslee: We are considering policies in that regard, and we’re doing what we should do in consideration. We’re looking at the most recent epidemiological research available — and I mean recent, we just found a new study yesterday afternoon pertinent to this issue. We are talking to the communities and, and leaders and public health experts. So we are considering those measures. I would not be shocked if we have some more news on that in the next few days.
Q: Given the numbers that you just laid out in terms of the potential spread here … how can you afford to wait even one more day for mandatory policies around social distancing to try to not contain this anymore but mitigate more?
Inslee: Well, we’re doing everything in real time as rapidly as possible to make good decisions. And you don’t want to make decisions where you haven’t thought about the consequences. Shutting down any social activity has profound consequences in people’s lives. And you have to understand those, and you have to see if there’s ways to reduce them. Or ameliorate that. That’s the work we’re doing right now, and it is done with a sense of urgency that we feel given these losses, we feel it so profoundly to lose 22 of our citizens. We know the stakes, but we need to understand the science fully, and we also need to have some communication with leaders in the community. I have emergency authority in this regard, but if it’s going to be followed, if it’s going to be effective, we have to have some relationship with local communities and leadership. And that’s why we’re having conversations about this right now on this subject.
Q: Just help us look around the corner, is it likely that the local areas that are most affected would actually impose these requirements or that they would come from the state? Would they be geographically limited or statewide? Would schools being included? Not included?
Inslee: As I said, I will not be shocked if these questions are all answered in very short order, but we have not made final decisions and it could consider all of the things you just listed. Those are the kind of things that we’re thinking through right now. There are multiple legal jurisdictions that do have authority to impose restrictions, the governor being first or the most geographically dispersed. Local health officials also have authorities. Cities even have some authorities. So there are multiple authorities that could act. Obviously I think that the using the governor’s authority may be the best from a statewide perspective and I can just assure you we’re considering those things right now.
Q: Governor, you used the number 64,000, there might be that many cases in seven to eight weeks. It’s a bit jarring, some would say, that people individually are having to make these decisions as opposed to government.
Inslee: As I said, the government is going to make the right decision at the right time on the right science, and after talking to the right people to assure that whatever decisions made actually can be implemented, and that’s what we’re doing today. Don’t be surprised if we’re back here in a day.
