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Two years after Whatcom County opened a COVID-19 isolation and quarantine facility amid the coronavirus pandemic, Health Department officials are planning to close that site, which will become a Motel 6 once again.

Only two people are staying at the Byron Avenue facility, and its last operational date will be March 31, Health Director Erika Lautenbach told the County Council in an online committee meeting Tuesday, March 22.

“We are working on options for motel stays, but we don’t plan to stand up anything that looks like what we have currently,” Lautenbach told the council’s Finance and Administrative Services Committee.

An isolation-only facility is available in the locker rooms at Civic Stadium in the event of another large outbreak, Lautenbach said. “We anticipate that there will continue to be a need, but not at the level where we need the facility that we have currently,” she said.