North Bend fire academy picked for coronavirus quarantine site in Washington state

A state facility near North Bend will serve as a new quarantine site for people returning to Washington state from the epicenter of the coronavirus epidemic in China.

The Washington State Patrol said Tuesday that the Fire Training Academy will hold travelers from Hubei Province who can't self-quarantine at home. The academy is on Grouse Ridge Road along Interstate 90, southeast of North Bend.

The patrol said media would get a chance to tour the facility Thursday, but that would be the only access to the site.

Eleven cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the United States, including a 35-year-old man from Snohomish County. He was hospitalized for a couple weeks before being released.

Several other people are being monitored for the disease, but nearly 20 others who were suspected of having the disease have tested negative.

Sea-Tac Airport is one of 11 in the United States that are receiving flights from China. Travelers who appear sick will be quarantined there, but it's not clear which of those people would go to the North Bend site. It's also not clear how many patients are expected to be housed there.

U.S. citizens who returned from Hubei in the 14 days before Feb. 2 will be subject to health screening and could be quarantined for up to two weeks.

Four military bases elsewhere in the country are also designated as quarantine sites. Those are in Texas, California and Colorado, The New York Times reports.

Right now, doctors say, the risk of coronavirus in Washington state is low -- influenza is a bigger threat. They say hand-washing and staying home when sick are the best defenses against coronavirus.