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.
A decision 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 during the briefing, adding that "there's probably going to be more guidance coming soon."
She added, "I think we 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."
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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 to the next level, 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.
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