Washington DOH says all counties moving into Phase 2 of reopening after data reporting error
Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signs a bill. (Image from pool video)
OLYMPIA, Wash. - The Washington State Department of Health announced that now all counties are cleared for Phase 2 of reopening starting Monday.
This announcement comes a week after the DOH said five regions could move into Phase 2, leaving out the region that contained Kittitas, Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Columbia Counties.
The DOH said a hospital in the South Central region of the reopening plan misreported data which led to a determination that the region remain in Phase 1 of Governor Jay Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery phased reopening plan.
When the region did not move to Phase 2, it was brought to the attention of DOH that a hospital in the region appeared to be incorrectly reporting its hospital admission data. The DOH is now working with that hospital on proper reporting.
At Phase 2, restaurants and indoor fitness centers can open at 25% capacity, sports competitions can resume with limited spectators, and wedding and funeral ceremonies can increase their number of guests.
In late January, Inslee announced that King, Snohomish, Pierce, Grays Harbor, Pacific, Thurston and Lewis Counties could enter Phase 2.
The latest iteration of the state’s reopening plan focuses efforts on reopening regions rather than individual counties.
Before, each region had to meet four metrics in order to advance: a 10% decreasing trend in case rates over a two-week period; a 10% decrease in coronavirus hospital admission rates in that same timeframe; an ICU occupancy rate that’s less than 90%; and a test positivity rate of less than 10%.
Healthy Washington breaks the state down into regions that initially had to meet four metrics to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Now, regions will only have to meet three out of four benchmarks to advance:
- Trend in case rate: Trend in 14-day rate of new COVID-19 cases per 100K population;
- Trend in hospital admissions rate: Trend in 14-day rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100K population;
- Percent ICU occupancy: Average 7-day percent occupancy of ICU staffed beds; and
- Percent positivity: 7-day percent positive of COVID-19 tests.
The requirement to maintain three metrics to remain in Phase 2 remains unchanged. If any region fails to meet any two metrics, they will still regress to Phase 1. Six counties will remain in Phase 1-- there is nothing higher than Phase 2.
Inslee also announced that he has authorized the Department of Commerce to distribute another $87 million for gadditional rental assistance ($43.5M) and business assistance ($43.5M) programs. The funds come from the state’s Disaster Response Account and are meant to build on the state’s previous commitments while we wait for additional federal aid expected to become available in the spring.