Tri-Cities gets left behind as most of Washington state moves to Phase 2 reopening
Almost the entire state of Washington will move to Phase 2 of reopening Monday — but not the Tri-Cities.
The six counties that make up the South Central Region failed to meet two of the state’s requirements for reopening — a low rate of positive COVID test results and a declining trend of new COVID patients in hospitals.
That means most indoor restaurant and bar service, small indoor gatherings and most indoor fitness center use continues to be banned. They are not allowed at 25% capacity until Phase 2.
The eight regions of the state are required to meet at least three of four goals in Gov. Jay Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery reopening plan for the COVID pandemic.
With seven regions meeting that standard “92% of all the people in the state of Washington will be able to move forward with some additional activity,” Inslee said at a Thursday afternoon news conference.
“People have been following science,” he said. “They have been masking up. Business owners have been complying with the healthy rules.”
The South Central Region of Benton, Franklin, Yakima, Walla Walla, Columbia and Kittitas counties met only two goals. All other regions met at least three goals, and four met all four goals.
Inslee said he is optimistic that the South Central Region can soon meet the state standards, as other regions have, after seeing progress in the past two weeks.
“The people driving this car are the people of these counties,” he said. “... They have control over this issue.”
Not holding large gatherings, not throwing parties at home and being diligent in wearing masks in public can help move the region to Phase 2, he said.
“You just have to do the things that work,” he said. “This virus doesn’t have legs. The only way this virus can infect us is if we let it.”
He said local leaders who have insights on how the state can help the South Central Region meet goals for reopening should let him know.
Earlier in the pandemic community leaders stepped up to encourage wearing face coverings, and new cases dropped dramatically, he said.
Tri-Cities region scores
Here’s how the South Central Region stood as of Feb 11:
▪ It had a declining numbers of new cases over two weeks, easily meeting the goal of a decrease of at least 10%.
It had a 41% drop for the week of Jan. 17-30 from the previous two weeks.
Statewide the drop was 40%.
▪ The region had just 86% of its hospital’s intensive care unit beds in use on average from Jan. 31 to Feb. 6, meeting the goal of less than 90%.
The statewide average was 81%.
▪ Hospital admissions of patients with COVID-19 per 100,000 people increased by 9% from Jan. 24 to Feb. 6 from the previous two weeks.
A drop of 10% is the goal set by the state. Statewide hospital admissions dropped 16%.
▪ The region also had too many of the tests done for COVID-19 come back positive for the week of Jan. 17-23.
The state requires fewer than 10% of tests be positive, and the South Central Region had a positive test rate of 14%.
Statewide 7% of tests were positive.
The South Central Region will have two weeks to make improvements before it can again be considered for advancement to Phase 2.
Counties started in Phase 1
The Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery plan was launched Jan. 11 by Inslee with a focus on reducing the rate of new COVID cases.
All eight regions of the state were rolled back to a revised Phase 1 under the new reopening plan.
Initially, regions had a chance to move forward every week or to be knocked back a phase. More recently decisions on phases have been made every two weeks to give businesses more stability and planning time before phases were changed to their benefit or detriment.
Statewide on Thursday, two western Washington regions, including Puget Sound, were already in Phase 2 and maintained progress to remain in Phase 2.
Five other regions had good enough metrics to advance from Phase 1 to Phase 2 on Monday, Jan. 15.
This story was originally published February 11, 2021 at 2:40 PM.