Local emergency responders in Kirkland, Washington, are changing their procedures after four local nursing home residents died of the coronavirus.

Kirkland emergency medical technicians will now wear protective clothing every time they are called out to respond to a sick patient, even if that person does not tell them about any coronavirus symptoms, city spokeswoman Kellie Stickney told CNN.

Stickney said there were two recent cases in which first responders treated people without any special protection, learning only after the fact that the patients had been experiencing flu-like symptoms.

Stickney said she did not know whether either of those patients were later determined to be infected with coronavirus.