WA counties stay put in current phases
By Terry Murry on Wednesday, May 5th, 2021 in Columbia Basin News More Top Stories
OLYMPIA – Gov. Jay Inslee announced a two-week pause on any movement in his Healthy Washington Roadmap to Recovery plan. Under the pause, every county will remain at its current phase. At the end of the pause the counties will be re-evaluated.
Inslee said he was making the change after consulting with the Department of Health to reflect the most recent data, suggesting that the fourth wave of COVID-19 had hit a plateau.
“We are at the intersection of progress and failure, and we cannot veer from the path of progress,” Inslee said Tuesday. “Our economy is beginning to show early signs of growth thanks to some of our great legislative victories and we know vaccines are the ticket to further reopening.”
The fourth wave of the novel coronavirus has been less severe than the previous three. Case counts and mortalities have not been tied in rates of increase as they have in the past. All but three Washington counties are in Phase 3 of the reopening plan. Cowlitz, Pierce, and Whitman were moved back to Phase 2 at the last accounting.
