Gov. Inslee announces all regions will remain in Phase 2, puts pause on moving backward

Inslee puts a pause on Phase 2 of re-opening

Regions can neither move forward nor go backward

OLYMPIA, Wash. - Gov. Jay Inslee announced that going forward, all regions in Washington state will remain in Phase 2. A pause has been put on going backward.

As of Feb. 11, all regions in the state were moved into Phase 2. There was initially a delay in allowing Kittitas, Yakima, Benton, Franklin, Walla Walla and Columbia Counties to move to Phase 2 after a data reporting error.

Inslee's office said that there is no update on future phases. Right now, the state and the Department of Health are looking at trends in COVID activity and vaccinations.

Earlier in the month, each region had to meet three of four requirements for Phase 2. If they didn't, they would go back to Phase 1. It's unclear if the state will be using those metrics going forward or develop new ones.

At Phase 2, restaurants and indoor fitness centers can open at 25% capacity, sports competitions can resume with limited spectators, and wedding and funeral ceremonies can increase their number of guests.

The latest iteration of the state’s reopening plan focuses efforts on reopening regions rather than individual counties.

Before, each region had to meet four metrics in order to advance: a 10% decreasing trend in case rates over a two-week period; a 10% decrease in coronavirus hospital admission rates in that same timeframe; an ICU occupancy rate that’s less than 90%; and a test positivity rate of less than 10%.