‘Healthy Washington’ numbers show Whatcom businesses must continue restrictions
Whatcom County and the entire state remain in Phase 1 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s “Healthy Washington” plan after numbers were released Friday, Jan. 8, by the state Department of Health.
The plan Introduced Tuesday, Jan. 5, ties business resumption targets by health system regions. Whatcom is tied to Skagit, San Juan and Island counties in the North region.
The state shows the North region having:
▪ A 31% decrease in the trend of new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population for the 14-day period of Dec. 13-26 compared to Nov. 29-Dec. 12.
▪ A 50% increase in the trend of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 population for the 14-day period of Dec. 20-Jan. 2 compared to Dec. 6-19.
▪ A seven-day average of 49% for occupancy of ICU staffed beds for Dec. 27-Jan. 2.
▪ Positive COVID-19 tests for the seven days Dec. 13-19 are at 4%.
The state will run analyses each Friday to determine whether regions will move backward or forward in phases the following Monday, officials said.
“When we look at the data from each one of the eight regions, we are seeing some positive trends. This is encouraging, and we are hopeful these trends will continue, and we will see regions begin to move into Phase 2 very soon,” said Deputy Secretary for COVID-19 Response Lacy Fehrenbach in a news release from the state Department of Health.
“We know that all people in Washington want to move forward as quickly as possible with respect to COVID-19. However, these metrics show that we are just not ready to do so now,” said Dr. Umair A. Shah, Washington’s Secretary of Health, in the news release. “We have made progress but need to continue to work together to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 across our state.”
Phase 1 allows live entertainment with ticketed groups of up to 10 people and very limited fitness activities such as appointment-based training in gyms.
Phase 2 allows restaurants and indoor fitness centers to open indoors at 25% capacity and allows for sports competitions to resume with limited spectators, and wedding, and funeral ceremonies can increase capacities.
Regions must meet these targets to move to Phase 2:
▪ A 10% decline in case rates over the last 14 days compared to the prior two weeks.
▪ 10% decline in COVID hospital admission rate in the last 14 days.
▪ ICU occupancy rates below 90% for COVID-19 and non-COVID patients.
▪ A test positivity rate below 10%.
To stay in Phase 2, regions have to keep meeting at least three of the metrics, though the trend metrics will have a little more flexibility than ICU occupancy and test positivity rates.
This story was originally published January 8, 2021 at 5:59 PM.
