Flood of 911 callers wanted to know if Washington state ‘stay home’ order affects them

March 24, 2020 Updated Tue., March 24, 2020 at 8:26 p.m.

By Rolf Boone Olympian

OLYMPIA – Immediately after Gov. Jay Inslee announced his “stay at home” order Monday night, Mason County 911 dispatchers started to field a very different kind of call.

It wasn’t about emergencies, but about confusion over the governor’s order.

They received so many calls that they finally posted a message on Facebook, including a link that directs callers to the appropriate resource, Mason County 911 director Mike Evans said Tuesday.

The message reads: “PLEASE DO NOT CALL 911 for info regarding ‘Stay home, stay healthy.’ ”

Gov. Inslee’s message was televised about 5:30 p.m. Monday. As soon as it was over, Mason County 911 received about a dozen calls from people “trying to understand if they were essential or not,” Evans said.

That continued for the next two hours with only three dispatchers, he said.

Thurston County 911 also fielded similar calls and directed those callers to coronavirus.wa.gov. “We got our fair share,” a Thurston County dispatcher said Tuesday.

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Flood of 911 callers wanted to know if Washington state ‘stay home’ order affects them

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