‘We were really disappointed’ — changes delay Whatcom from filing for Phase 2 Monday
Whatcom County was not able to file to move to Phase 2 of Washington state’s re-opening plan from closures forced during the coronavirus pandemic on Monday, June 1, after Gov. Jay Inslee announced new benchmarks Friday, the Whatcom County Health Department announced.
Though the county planned to file, health department director Erika Lautenbach said during a briefing Monday that the county was not able to complete the application in time for a 10 a.m. special health board county council meeting. Lautenbach said the county health department now hopes to have the forms completed Monday afternoon so that the county’s application could be sent to the state on Tuesday.
“We were really disappointed that we couldn’t make this happen today,” Lautenbach said. “But it was a significant body of work and we wanted to make sure we had the strongest application possible to move to Phase 2. Having a few more hours will allow us to do that.”
The reason for the delay, Lautenbach said, was because the health department received new application materials from the state on Sunday, May 31. Among other additions, the new application required additional information from the hospital, had a new requirement for daily check-ins with people in home isolation and included new questions, including one that required a summary of the epidemiology of COVID in the county.
“We were finalizing the variance application based on the information we had last week and the application to move to Phase 2 that we received yesterday had some significant differences to the point where we were not able to complete those documents in time for the 10 a.m. special health board county council meeting where they would vote to approve the application,” Lautenbach said.
The health department’s intention was to have the new documents completed by Monday afternoon, Lautenbach said during the briefing, so that they could be delivered to the health board and the county executive for approval so that the application can be sent to the Secretary of Health on Tuesday. The Whatcom County Council already has a regularly scheduled meeting Tuesday at 11 a.m., Lautenbach said, where it will serve as a special health board.
Lautenbach said the county’s completed application will be made public.
Whatcom County is one of 11 Washington state counties eligible to apply to move to Phase 2 after they meet new benchmarks announced Friday, May 29, by Gov. Jay Inslee.
Th new standards for controlling infection spread and the ability to diagnose and treat patients include:
▪ Fewer than 25 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population over 14 days. After the health department reported six new COVID-19 cases on Monday, the county has had 41 confirmed cases in the past 14 days — well below the state-set standard for Phase 2 application. Lautenbach said the county needs to average fewer than four new cases per day to meet the requirement. The county has reported an average of 2.8 new cases over the past 14 days.
▪ Flat or decreasing hospitalizations for lab-confirmed COVID-19. Lautenbach said the county is seeing decreases in hospitalizations due to COVID. St. Joseph hospital reported Friday and Saturday that it was treating one patient who tested positive for COVID-19. On Monday it reported two patients who tested positive.
▪ Fewer than 80% of licensed hospital beds occupied by patients and fewer than 10% of beds occupied by suspected and confirmed COVID-19 cases. Lautenbach said St. Joseph hospital is currently at 79.4% occupancy and 1.5% occupied by COVID patients.
▪ Capacity to perform an average number of tests per day during the past week at a rate of 50 times (or 2%) the number of COVID-19 cases. Lautenbach said Whatcom is currently at 3.4%, and “that is is an ideal target, so we do not believe that being above that 2% threshold damages our application to move to Phase 2.”
▪ The median time from symptom onset to specimen collection for testing in cases during the past week is less than two days. Lautenbach said Whatcom’s is half that time, at one day.
▪ In case and contact investigations, 90% of cases are reached by phone or in person within one day of receipt of a positive lab test and 80% of people who possibly were exposed are contacted within 48 hours. Lautenbach said Whatcom County is at 94% of those who tested positive in 83 cases over the past four weeks. She added Whatcom currently has contacted 70% of the 430 possible exposures, “but again this is an ideal target, not a hard and steady target.” Lautenbach went on to say the county is investing more resources to improve that number.
▪ The county — and all counties statewide — also received new expectations on Sunday to contact 80% of people daily during their home isolation period, Lautenbach said, adding the county is working to track that data.
▪ One or fewer outbreaks reported per week for counties with population of 75,000 to 300,000 people. An outbreak is defined as two or more non-household cases linked by epidemiology within 14 days in a workplace, congregate living or institutional setting. Lautenbach announced Monday that the county does have one active outbreak at a processing facility, but she would not disclose which facility or how many cases have been confirmed.
As of Thursday, Whatcom County had 21 trained, full-time disease investigators who do case investigations and contact tracing the Health Department said on it its website.
Further, the county opened an isolation and quarantine facility in late April at the former Motel 6 in Bellingham.
That facility is for anyone who tests positive for the new coronavirus or who has been exposed to the respiratory illness and can’t safely isolate or quarantine at home.
Phase 1 allowed the reopening of retail (curbside pick-up orders only); automobile, recreational vehicle, boat, and off-road vehicle sales; landscaping, car washes, and pet walkers.
Phase 2 enables retail firms to resume in-store purchases, restaurants to reopen with 50 percent capacity and table sizes no larger than 5, and the re-start of new construction, real estate, hair and nail salons, and barbers.
Phase 3 allows restaurants/taverns to reopen at 75 percent capacity with tables sizes no larger than 10, as well as bar areas in restaurants/taverns at 25 percent capacity, movie theaters at 50 percent capacity, and libraries and museums.
Note: Story updated June 1, 2020, to reflect there is no daily deadline to file application to move to Phase 2.
This story was originally published June 1, 2020 at 1:38 PM.
