Pasco, Franklin County stay in Phase 3. WSU Pullman forced to fall back

Benton and Franklin counties will stay in Phase 3 of reopening for at least another three weeks, Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Monday.

Just three of Washington state’s 39 counties will roll back to Phase 2 of reopening.

They include Whitman County, where new case rates have soared because of outbreaks among students at Washington State University Pullman.

They also include Pierce County, home to Tacoma, and Cowlitz County, home to Longview, both in Western Washington.

Under updated guidance, counties had to fail both of two requirements to drop back to Phase 2 of recovery in the Monday evaluation, the first of evaluations planned every three weeks.

“These metric trends are driven by the virus and we must continue to do everything we can to sharpen our focus and keep COVID-19 activity down,” Inslee said. “We are so close to the end of the tunnel here — we have made tremendous progress and we must keep our focus.”

The state required counties with populations over 50,000, which includes Benton and Franklin, have fewer than five people admitted to hospitals per 100,000 population over seven days for COVID-19 treatment.

Benton, Franklin numbers

Benton County had five COVID patients admitted to hospitals in the week ending March 30, which came to 2.4 patients per 100,000 people.

Franklin County had three patients admitted, which came to 3.1 patients per 100,000 people.

The second requirement was for counties with populations the size of Benton and Franklin to have a new case rate of fewer than 200 cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks through April 2.

Franklin County had a case rate of 188 new cases per 100,000 people for the two weeks the state considered for all counties, according to the Washington state Department of Health.

Benton County had a case rate of 155 new cases per 100,000 people for two weeks.

The Benton Franklin Health District reported slightly lower new case rates on Monday, using data for the two weeks through April 5.

Whitman County had a two week case rate of 416 and a hospitalization rate of 5.9.

Lincoln County had the highest case rate in the state at 462 but had no people admitted to the hospital in the week checked, so did not drop to Phase 2.

Cowlitz had the highest hospitalization rate in the state, 11.8.

All counties of the state moved to Phase 3 of reopening on March 22.

Under Phase 3 of reopening, restaurants, fitness centers, movie theaters and other public spaces were allowed to increase occupancy to 50% of capacity.

Attendance at outdoor events also was expanded in Phase 3, including for professional, high school and youth sports and for graduation ceremonies.

The state will do its next assessment of how well counties are meeting requirements for case rates and hospitalizations on May 3.

“We need to focus on lowering disease transmission in the next several weeks ahead as we continue our vaccination efforts in order to avoid a fourth surge of cases,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID-19 response with the Washington state Department of Health.

“This means wearing masks, watching our distancing and keeping gatherings small and outdoors,” she said.

This story was originally published April 12, 2021 at 3:03 PM.