All regions in Washington now in phase 2 of reopening plan

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.

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

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

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.