U.S. Army relocates military field hospital from Seattle

Soldiers from 62nd Medical Brigade and 47th Combat Support Hospital from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Washington, and from 627th Hospital Center and 10th Field Hospital from Fort Carson, Colorado is relocating military field hospital from Seattle, according to a recent service news release.

The massive Army field hospital will move to another state to better assist new communities requiring medical support facing in their battle against the coronavirus.

Nearly 300 soldiers from the 627th Hospital Center spent several days building this massive make-shift care center – enough for roughly 250 people.

Medical equipment at the CenturyLink Field Event Center is being returned to the Federal Emergency Management Agency for use elsewhere, but the governor cautioned against reading too much into the move.

“Don’t let this decision give you the impression that we are out of the woods. We have to keep our guard up and continue to stay home unless conducting essential activities to keep everyone healthy,” Gov. Jay Inslee said in a statement Wednesday. “We requested this resource before our physical distancing strategies were fully implemented and we had considerable concerns that our hospitals would be overloaded with Covid-19 cases. But we haven’t beat this virus yet, and until we do, it has the potential to spread rapidly if we don’t continue the measures we’ve put in place.”

KOMO News previously reported that Army’s 627th Hospital Center, based in Fort Carson, Colorado, had been in Seattle for just over a week transforming the event center into a fully functioning hospital with 250 patient beds, two operating rooms and a lab, pharmacy and ICU with the goal of treating non-COVID-19 patients who required hospitalization, alleviating pressure on other local hospitals to deal with coronavirus cases.