Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
Infected and their families should prepare to be quarantined at home 14 days
OLYMPIA — If you test positive for conoravirus, be prepared to be quarantined at home.
That’s the message Gov. Jay Inslee shared during a Tuesday afternoon press conference on his plan for “contact tracing” of the virus.
Under his plan, anyone who tests positive will be quarantined at home. Moreover, anyone in their immediate family and anyone with whom they’ve had contact, will also be quarantined in their homes.
While the governor called the plan “voluntary,” he also acknowledged that the state will be keeping tabs on you.
Inslee said his coronavirus “army” will be reaching out to those who test positive and questioning them on their whereabouts and personal interactions. The contract tracers will so be checking up on those an infected individual personally interacted with.
“It’s absolutely integral,” Inslee said of the plan’s effect on slowing the spread of the virus that was first diagnosed in late 2019 in Wuhan, China. “It is robust. It’s vigorous and it is comprehensive.”
The governor called the virus tracing effort the “largest in our state history, as it should be.”
“If we do not succeed in what you might thing is the second stage of our efforts, this virus could jump right out and bite us,” he said.
The governor said he’s enlisted the help of a coronavirus “army” to test and trace those suspected of infection. That army already includes 351 Washington National Guardsmen, 390 state Department of Licensing employees and the 630 state and local health care workers, he said.
The individuals have all been specially trained to protect privacy rights, he said.
The testing and tracing also includes a quarantine portion, Inslee said, noting those who are infected will be isolated in their homes.
According to the governor, isolation needs to occur within 48 hours of diagnosis.
“We really need people to quarantine immediately, upon first symptoms, and stay quarantined,” he said. “We’re going to have to make sure their household also isolates with them.”
An infected person and those they came in contact with will be quarantined for 14 days, under the plan. During that time, contact tracers would be contacting those quarantined daily to “see how they are doing,”
Washington National Guard Lt. Col. Steven Hobbs also participated in the governor’s press conference.
Hobbs, who is also a state senator, said guardsmen understand the program is completely voluntary.
He also said guardsmen trained as contact tracers understand the need for privacy regarding health information.
The privacy aspect drew questions connected to the governor’s announcement yesterday that restaurants and taverns allowed to reopen dining rooms will have to maintain a list of patrons and their contact information.
That information would be shared with the tracing team, should an infected person found to have dined inside that eatery.
Inslee said his staff is working with industry leaders to address those and other questions, such as will diners be required to prove their identity when they’re logged in.
Restaurants and taverns in eight counties — Ferry, Stevens, Pend Oreille, Lincoln, Garfield, Columbia, Skamania and Wahkiakum — may start opening as early as June 1 under the governor’s previously announced reopening phase-in.
“June 1 is a hopeful date,” the governor said. “It is not fixed in stone … we cannot guarantee it.”
Inslee bristled when questioned about Washingtonians who refuse to participate in the contact tracing or provide their personal information to eat inside a restaurant.
“The vast, vast, vast majority of Washingtonians are complying,” the governor said.
Those who don’t are “going to have to comply, eventually,” he added. “If they don’t there are sanctions they will face.”
Inslee said those sanctions could include civil or criminal court actions.
“As far as refusal, it shouldn’t come to that,” he said. “Nobody wants to make this a federal crime.”
Roger Harnack is the owner/publisher of Free Press Publishing. Having grown up Benton City, Roger is an award-winning journalist, photographer, editor and publisher. He's one of only two editorial/commentary writers from Washington state to ever receive the international Golden Quill. Roger is dedicated to the preservation of local media, and the voice it retains for Eastern Washington.
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