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New state guidelines favorable for Pierce County’s move into Phase 2 of COVID-19 recovery plan
There was good news Friday concerning Pierce County’s desire to move into Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s Safe Start plan.
Inslee announced at a news conference that some benchmarks would be relaxed for counties applying to move to the next phase in COVID-19 recovery efforts.
One new benchmark allows counties to have more cases per 100,000 in population over a 14-day period in order to qualify for state approval.
That new standard is fewer than 25 cases per 100,000 over 14 days. The previous standard was fewer than 10 per 100,000, also listed in the CDC’s national reopening guidance. That guidance defined a low-incidence plateau as “a very low number of new cases reported (below 10 cases per 100,000 population over 2 weeks) with only minimal change in daily cases.”
The state’s new case standard per 100,000 is also used by California, as was noted in Friday’s news conference.
Pierce County had 18.3 new cases per 100,000 residents over the last 14 days, according to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department in its Friday report.
While Pierce County would meet the new case count target, moving to Phase 2 wouldn’t be automatic.
“They still need to apply and meet the criteria,” Inslee said of Pierce and other counties that meet case counts. “It’s not an automatic green light.”
There are more criteria to determine if a county is ready to move forward, Inslee said, including testing capabilities and plans in place to perform contact tracing and use masks to prevent transmission.
Secretary of Health John Wiesman said the decision to move forward lies with the counties and their preparedness.
Other Phase 2 metrics include:
Hospitals need to see a flat or decreasing number of positive COVID-19 cases.
Average number of tests performed per day during the past week should be 50 times the number of cases, or 2 percent.
A limited number of outbreaks: zero for counties with populations of fewer than 75,000; one for counties with populations of 75,000-300,000; two for large counties with populations greater than 300,000; three for counties of a million or more. An outbreak is considered two or more cases at a single location.
90 percent of cases reached by phone or in person within 24 hours of receipt of positive lab test report
Less than 10 percent of capacity of licensed hospital beds are occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases
The criteria should be seen as a target, not a hard-line measure, Inslee said.
Starting June 1, any county can apply to move to the next phase. Counties can choose to be more restrictive but not remove state-imposed restrictions for each phase, the governor said.
Phase 2 allows retailers to resume in-store purchases, restaurants to reopen with 50 percent capacity and table sizes no larger than five diners, and the re-start of new construction, real estate, hair and nail salons, and barbers.
If counties in Phase 1 don’t qualify for Phase 2, they can apply for a modified Phase 1. A “Phase 1.5” might be changed by the state for each county but could include:
Outside gatherings of five or fewer people, even those not in the same household, would be allowed
Phase 2 guidance for additional construction
Fitness and recreation would be allowed outdoors for up to five people, excluding the instructor
Real estate, pet grooming shops, personal and professional services could have up to 25 percent occupancy
Restaurants could not have indoor seating but could have 50 percent of existing outdoor capacity.
Pierce County officials already have taken steps to send an application to the state.
The Board of Health has scheduled a meeting on Sunday to discuss Pierce County’s application. Pierce County Council has a special meeting planned for 10 a.m. Monday.
Both the Pierce County Council and the Board of Health must approve the application before County Executive Bruce Dammeier sends it to the state. To be considered, an application needs to include plans for:
Making testing available and accessible to everyone in the county with symptoms
Staffing case investigations and contact tracing
Housing people in isolation or quarantine who can’t or don’t want to do so at home
Providing case management services to those in isolation and quarantine
Responding rapidly to outbreaks in congregate settings.
The state can approve the plans as submitted, approve with modifications or deny the application.
During Friday’s COVID-19 Business Info Series call Friday, Dammeier told the group that he hoped to be able to submit an application to the state June 1 requesting approval for the county to move to Phase 2.
“I’ve been making this case to the governor for a while … that you shouldn’t treat Washington state as a monolith,” he said during the call. “We’ve been making what I hope is a very compelling case to the governor that the people of Pierce County are ready to responsibly and safely move to Phase 2.
“We’ve got small businesses, we’ve got families that are hanging on by their fingernails, and I want to make sure we are getting to Phase 2 as quickly as possible.”
Dammeier emphasized that “days matter on this.”
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