The Seattle Mariners are changing their plans when it comes to their regular-season opener. Due to the coronavirus outbreak in the state of Washington, the Mariners will not host games in Seattle this month. Washington Gov. Jay Inslee made the announcement of banning large gatherings in three counties within the Seattle metro area through the end of March. The Mariners are scheduled to open the season at T-Mobile Park with a four-game series against the Texas Rangers from March 26 to 29 and then host the Minnesota Twins from March 30 to April 1. The Mariners and the state of Washington are working on moving those games to another stadium.
“Following Washington Governor Jay Inslee’s announcement this morning that he is banning large group events through March, the Seattle Mariners are working with the Major League Baseball Office of the Commissioner on alternative plans for our games that were scheduled for the end of March at T-Mobile Park in Seattle,” the Mariners said in a statement.
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“While we hope to be back to playing baseball in Seattle as soon as possible, the health and safety of our community is the most important consideration.
“This is an extremely dangerous event that we are facing, but we are not helpless,” Inslee said at a press conference per The Hill. “These are not easy decisions. The decisions that we’re making today and the decisions we probably will be making in the upcoming days are going to be profoundly disturbing to a lot of the ways we live our lives today. But I believe they are the right ones.”
There are 267 confirmed cases in Washington but Inslee stated there could be “hundreds if not thousands” of people in the state who have the virus but don’t know it.
“There is no magic silver bullet at the moment medically, but there is a very successful effort that we can take to slow the spread of this disease and that’s to reduce the social interactions that are not necessary in our lives,” Inslee said.
Inslee’s announcement comes shortly after the World Health Organization declaring a pandemic, which means the virus has sustained a spread on at least two continents. The Hill stated there are more than 121,000 cases that have been confirmed including 1,050 in the United States.
