Watch: Gov. Jay Inslee speaking on reopening more Washington state counties faster

Gov. Jay Inslee has scheduled a press conference at 11 a.m. Tuesday to discuss the plan for additional counties to get approval to reopen businesses with less restrictions while keeping people safe from COVID-19.

Inslee also is expected to announce emergency small business grants.

You can watch the press conference live below courtesy of TVW.

On Monday, state Secretary of Health John Wiesman approved the application for Asotin County to move to phase 2 of Inslee’s four-phase plan to reopen the rest of the state’s economy. Others that have received approval are Columbia, Garfield, Lincoln, Ferry, Pend Oreille, Skamania, Stevens, Wahkiakum, and Whitman.

To apply for the variance, those counties had to have a population of less than 75,000 and no new cases of COVID-19 in the last three weeks. For the state to approve the application, counties are required to show they have sufficient local hospital bed capacity as well as adequate personal protective equipment supplies for health care workers.

The rest of the state is scheduled to move to phase 2 on June 1, but Inslee said on Monday that he could not guarantee it.

“That will depend on the status of the virus. It will depend on our ability to set up a very strong testing, contact tracing and isolation protocol,” he said.

Others set to take part in Tuesday’s press conference are Wiesman, state Health officer and Chief Science Officer Dr. Kathy Lofy, and Lisa Brown, secretary of the Department of Commerce.

This story was originally published May 19, 2020 at 8:27 AM.