- Moses Lake, WA
Today Governor Jay Inslee held a press conference to announce two regions will be moving into phase 2 of Washington's reopening criteria. In fact, no regions east of Cascades won't be advancing into the next phase. Inslee said during a press conference that the criteria for regions in Washington to move from Phase 1 to 2 of reopening is becoming less stringent, allowing for the Puget Sound and West Regions to move into Phase 2 on Monday, Feb. 1. The counties in these regions represent about half of the state's population, Inslee said.
Under the Governor's revised plan, regions in the state will be required to now meet three of four health metrics to progress, instead of all meeting four. The changes follow conversations with public health leaders and the state's increasing vaccination rates following the opening of mass vaccination cites.
To move on to Phase 2, a region must meet the following four targets:
10% decreasing trend in case rates over 14 days
10% decrease in coronavirus hospital admission rates over 14 days
ICU occupancy that’s less than 90% over 7 days
Test positivity rate that’s less than 10% over 7 days
Here in Grant County we are the most populated county in the region about 20,000 more residents than Chelan County the regions second populated county. Right now Grant County is only meeting half of those requirements.
Vaccine Update in the county:
There are now thirteen (13) facilities in Grant County that have been approved to receive and administer the COVID- 19 vaccine. Not every facility that has been approved has received vaccine and most facilities are only getting 100 doses per week, the smallest allocation available, when they do receive COVID-19 vaccine. Of the 13 approved sites, only 6 have received vaccine so far. As of January 22, 98% of all primary doses of vaccine allocated to Grant County had been administered. The Washington State Department of Health now includes current vaccination totals for the state and at the county level on their COVID-19 Dashboard: https://www.doh.wa.gov/Emergencies/COVID19/DataDashboard. All vaccinated places are requiring appointments to be made and photo proof that you are eligible through the state's phase finder website. That website can be found here: https://form.findyourphasewa.org/210118771253954
The Grant County Health District said that there are an estimated 1.7 million people currently eligible to receive the COVDI-19 vaccine in Washington State, but the state is only receiving approximately 100,000 doses of vaccine per week. Those doses are divided up among the many approved facilities around the state, including the newly opened mass vaccination sites being run by the Washington National Guard.
The health district continued to say "even though there is now a vaccine available, which is great news, it will take time to get through everyone who wants to be vaccinated so we are asking people to be patient and continue to consistently take steps that prevent the spread of COVID-19"
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