MONROE, Wash. — Snohomish County's coronavirus quarantine site is being moved from Angel of the Winds Arena in Everett to the county-owned Evergreen Fairgrounds in Monroe.
When the quarantine site at Angel of the Winds Arena was set up April 1, Snohomish County was expecting a boom in the number of coronavirus patients who needed a place to isolate. That didn't happen.
Despite the county having 3,200 confirmed cases, only 26 people in total have used the site.
"The facility that we had, we had set up for 96 with an ability to expand quickly to 150. So, we recognize that we haven't had that large of a need," said Jason Biermann the Director of Snohomish County Department of Emergency Management.
The goal was to give people a place to quarantine if they had no other place to go. Biermann said the site was a success.
"It was successful in the fact that we stood it up quickly, we had enough capacity to address that need if it turned out we needed it. Fortunately it didn't. Fortunately we didn't have as many as we thought would get ill in those communities, so that's a good thing," Biermann said.
The Evergreen State Fairgrounds in Monroe will be the new home to Snohomish county quarantine site. The fairgrounds is owned by the county, and so it will no longer have to pay rent.
The new location will save the county money, according to Biermann.
"We had been paying costs associated with Angel of the Winds, in terms of renting the facility, in terms of private security and other things that were part of the contract that we're part of," he said, "Moving it to where we are at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds, we're utilizing county facilities that aren't otherwise being used right now."
It costs $15,000 a month for the county to rent the arena.
But while the county won't pay money to occupy the fairgrounds, it doesn't make it free.
They have a budget of $1 million a month to operate the quarantine facility.
But if the county wants to move into Phase 3 of Gov. Jay Inslee's plan to reopen the state, they have to keep the quarantine site up and running.
"It's part of the Governor's 'Safe Start' plan," Biermann said. "We have to specify the availability of an isolation and quarantine facility, what size it is, how much it can expand. It's a requirement to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2, which we are in, and from Phase 2 to Phase 3."
The new site will open at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds on June 26.