CDC investigation reveals why coronavirus likely hit Seattle-area nursing homes so hard

Life Care Center in Kirkland Washington.

(Image credit: David Ryder/Getty Images)

last updated 19 March 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has made its way across the United States, but one of the most striking instances remains how swiftly and dangerously the virus spread in Seattle-area long-term care facilities beginning in February. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention now seems to have a clearer idea of how that happened.

Most of Seattle's nursing home cases are connected to a facility in Kirkland, Washington, but the CDC found in a report published Wednesday that by March 9, at least eight other nursing and assisted living facilities had reported one or more cases of COVID-19.

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Those findings, the CDC said, show COVID-19 can be particularly damaging in long-term care facilities where the population is already more vulnerable to the virus because of the average age and greater likelihood of underlying conditions among residents. The report determined it's critical such facilities across the U.S. "implement active measures to prevent the introduction of COVID-19." Read the full report here.

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.

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