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All regions in Washington now in phase 2 of reopening plan

By KIRO 7 News Staff

Washington reopening regions The new COVID-19 reopening plan, called "Healthy Washington," moves away from a county-based oversight system to one focused on regions. Washington's 39 counties will be divided into eight geographic regions based on health system resources.

By KIRO 7 News Staff

The entire state is officially in phase 2 of the reopening plan, the Department of Health announced Sunday.

The department said that a hospital in Walla Walla reported their data incorrectly, keeping the South Central region stuck in phase 1 due to the metrics. The hospital was reporting all COVID patient they had, rather than new COVID patients.

The region will now immediately move to phase 2 now that the error was discovered and corrected.

>> Follow this link to see a full chart of what activities will be allowed at each phase.

Gov. Inslee already announced last week that the East, North, North Central, Northwest and Southwest regions were moving to phase 2 on Feb. 14.

The Puget Sound and West regions moved to phase 2 earlier this month.

The governor said that the new phases are beginning on Feb. 14 because Valentine’s Day provides a large portion of some restaurants’ yearly revenue.

The four metrics for advancing in phases are:

  • Trend in case rate: Trend in 14-day rate of new COVID-19 cases per 100K population;
  • Trend in hospital admissions rate: Trend in 14-day rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100K population;
  • Percent ICU occupancy: Average 7-day percent occupancy of ICU staffed beds; and
  • Percent positivity: 7-day percent positive of COVID-19 tests.

If any region fails to meet any two metrics, they will go back to Phase 1.

Cox Media Group

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