E-news updates from the Office of Gov. Jay Inslee
Regions advancing to Phase 2 of the state's economic reopening plan
Gov. Jay Inslee announced changes to the Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery plan on Thursday that will advance two of the state's eight regions into Phase 2 of the pandemic reopening strategy,
Regions moving to Phase 2 effective Monday are:
West (Grays Harbor, Pacific, Thurston, Lewis)
Puget Sound (Snohomish, King, Pierce)
Combined, these counties contain roughly half of the state's 7.6 million residents.
When a region moves to Phase 2, restaurants may open indoor dining at 25% capacity, as may indoor fitness centers. In Phase 2, sports competitions may resume with limited spectators; and wedding and funeral ceremonies can increase their capacities from current limits.
You can find what phase your region is in and how the local metrics are progressing at the Department of Health website.
Under the new plan, regions will only be required to meet three of the four public health metrics to progress to Phase 2. The original roadmap required regions to meet all four.
The four metrics remain the same. They are:
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 metrics provide an overview of current COVID-19 trends and health care system readiness in
each region, ensuring that health care systems will efficiently and equitably respond to potential future outbreaks.
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.
Read more about the changes on the governor's Medium page.
Read the full Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery plan here.
Inslee tours new mass vaccination site in Clark County
On Friday, Gov. Jay Inslee toured one of the state's new mass vaccination sites in Ridgefield at the Clark County Fairgrounds. The new site is currently vaccinating more than 700 people a day and expects to administer about 1,000 vaccinations a day once supplies being allocated by the federal government become adequate.
Currently, the state's other mass vaccination sites are located in Wenatchee, the Tri-Cities and Spokane. Additionally, about 1,000 providers around the state have been approved to administer vaccines.
The mass vaccination sites are supported by the state Department of Health, the National Guard, Safeway, UFCW, and the public-private partnership of the Vaccine Command and Coordination System. Together with more than 800 other providers approved to administer vaccines, these partnerships are helping the state rapidly advance toward a goal of 45,000 COVID-19 vaccinations daily.
Nearly 600,000 doses of the vaccine have been administered in Washington to date. The state is currently averaging 26,000 vaccinations per day, which is nearly double the average it was one week ago. More information on dose distribution and vaccinations done by county can be found here.
Legislative Update: Unemployment insurance rate relief is on the way for employers
This week, both chambers of the Legislature approved governor-requested legislation SB 5061, which would increase minimum unemployment benefits for workers and provide $1.7 billion in unemployment tax relief for businesses. The bill received strong bipartisan support, and the governor expects to sign it next week.
Also next week, the Legislature is set to take action on a number of other governor-request bills. On Wednesday the Labor and Workplace Standards Committee is scheduled to vote on HB 1097, which would help ensure safer working conditions and better protections for workers.
On Thursday, the House Appropriations Committee will hear HB 1091, which would establish a clean fuels program in Washington. They’re also scheduled to take executive action on HB 1016, which would establish Juneteenth as a Washington state holiday.
HB 1267, governor-request legislation sponsored by Rep. Debra Entenman is also scheduled for executive action that day in the House Public Safety Committee. The legislation would create an Office of Independent Investigations to conduct investigations into police use of excessive force.
The 105-day legislative session is set to run through the end of April.