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A sharp increase in COVID-19 cases is forcing the Whatcom County Health Department to open a second isolation facility for people who have tested positive for the virus and have nowhere else to go. That isolation facility will be in the locker rooms at Civic Stadium, where Northwest Youth Services has been housing up to 25 homeless young adults. “This is going to relieve a lot of stress at other facilities, in Base Camp and at the hospital,” Whatcom County Health Director Erika Lautenbach told the Bellingham City Council at a committee meeting Monday afternoon, Jan. 10.

Young adults who have been spending the night in the Civic Stadium with Northwest Youth Services supervision will now be staying in the classrooms at Maritime Heritage Park, Lautenbach said at the meeting. The new isolation facility can accommodate up to 25 guests who are vulnerable members of the community and need a place to stay during their isolation period, according to a Health Department news release Monday.