PIERCE COUNTY, WA — After months of closures and lockdown, Pierce County has been approved to enter Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee's Safe Start plan Friday.
Pierce County submitted its application to enter Phase 2 on Tuesday, and along with 13 other counties, saw its application to move forward granted by the state Secretary of Health Friday morning.
Now that the county has entered Phase 2 a variety of businesses are allowed to return to work, including restaurants, salons, manufacturers, gyms, retailers and more. Each industry has been given unique safety guidelines they will need to follow to prevent further coronavirus transmissions. For example, restaurants can only serve tables of five or fewer guests and are limited to 50 percent of their normal total capacity. Social distancing requirements will also remain in effect, but restrictions on nonessential travel will be loosened so that residents can travel to and from reopened businesses.
We are pleased to move to Phase 2, effective immediately! But, please continue to be smart and stay safe! pic.twitter.com/EEimKVvQTF
— Pierce County, Wash. (@PierceCo) June 5, 2020
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To get to this point, Pierce County had to meet a variety of coronavirus safety metrics and have the unanimous support of the county's hospitals, health officers, board of health and county commission or council. Health officials voted to move the county forward over the weekend, and the Pierce County Council followed suit Monday.
According to the state's COVID-19 risk assessment dashboard, Pierce County has met three of the five key metrics that the state uses to grade counties and determine when they can move ahead:
- Pierce County saw 15.6 coronavirus cases per 100,000 residents over the past two weeks, below the goal of 25 cases.
- Less than 80 percent of Pierce County's hospital beds are occupied.
- Less than 10 percent of hospital beds are occupied by coronavirus patients.
To move to Phase 3, now the county will want to focus on the other two metrics, which both relate to increasing testing. They'll also need to effectively use contact tracing to track how the virus is spreading: a county entering Phase 3 should interview 90 percent of coronavirus patients within 24 hours of that patient receiving a positive test. From there, 80 percent of the people that patient had contact with will need to be interviewed within 48 hours.
They have time, however. A county must be in Phase 2 for at least three weeks before they are eligible to move to the third phase.
At the same time Pierce County was allowed to move forward, the first Washington Counties entered Phase 3: Columbia, Ferry, Garfield, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Stevens and Wahkiakum counties. All six counties had applied to enter Phase 3 Wednesday.
Alongside Pierce County, Clark, Okanogan, Skagit, Snohomish and Whatcom counties were all approved to enter Phase 2 on Friday. King County could not meet the Phase 2 requirements but saw an application to enter a "modified Phase 1" granted, which would allow the county to reopen some businesses, but not to the extent of a full Phase 2.
Health officials are quick to warn that entering Phase 2 does not mean everything is back to normal. If another outbreak of the virus does happen, the county could be knocked back to Phase 1, shuttering stores once again.
"We are all eager to resume our normal lives," said Tacoma-Pierce County Director of Health Anthony L-T Chen. "But we must help our society and economy recover while protecting community health, especially our ethnic communities who suffer disproportionately."
To prevent a resurgence of the virus, the health department recommends that residents continue to wear face coverings in public, keep six feet apart from others, and practice good hygiene with frequent hand washing. While Phase 2 allows for more social gatherings, health officials say residents should choose five friends or non-household members you want to see regularly, and try to only visit them.
The county's complete guidance for all reopening businesses can be found here.
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