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Snohomish County remained in Phase 3 on Monday as Gov. Jay Inslee announced the rollback of three counties that did not meet the Phase 3 Healthy Washington metrics for reopening activities.
Pierce, Cowlitz and Whitman counties all failed to pass both of their COVID metrics, which track case rates and hospitalizations.
As the state’s third most-populous county, Snohomish is eligible for Phase 3 as long as it keeps new COVID cases below 200 per 100,000 in a two-week period and hospitalizations below 5 per 100,000 across seven days.
“Staying in the current phase is the appropriate decision for Snohomish County. Most of our residents have taken a common-sense approach to the pandemic, and they deserve the most credit for our success. Also, the County’s Vaccine Task Force has done a great job setting up our targeted and mass vaccination teams, ensuring we reach as many of our most vulnerable and marginalized residents as possible. That early work is now paying off by protecting those most at risk for COVID-19 and ensuring our economy can continue to recover. We will remain focused on protecting our residents through vaccination and ensuring we aren’t straining our healthcare system. For everyone’s sake, we need to keep up our public health measures.” Snohomish County Executive Dave Somers
The county’s COVID case rate during the review period was 152.3 per 100,000 residents and the hospitalization rate was 3.1 per 100,000.
“These metric trends are driven by the virus and we must continue to do everything we can to sharpen our focus and keep COVID-19 activity down. We are so close to the end of the tunnel here — we have made tremendous progress and we must keep our focus,” Inslee said. “It’s like a football game; we have done 95 yards on a 99 yard-drive. We can’t let up now. These are not punitive actions; they are to save lives and protect public health.”
“Vaccine is a crucial tool that will help us end the pandemic, but it isn’t the only tool, and we don’t yet have enough Washingtonians fully vaccinated to rely on this alone to keep our communities safe from the virus,” said Lacy Fehrenbach, deputy secretary for COVID-19 response, Department of Health. “We need to focus on lowering disease transmission in the next several weeks ahead as we continue our vaccination efforts in order to avoid a fourth surge of cases. This means wearing masks, watching our distancing and keeping gatherings small and outdoors.”
Read the full announcement.
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