Phase 3 Returns In Pierce County: What To Know

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — After just over a month spent in Phase 2 lockdown, Pierce County has been moved ahead into Phase 3 of the Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery plan.

The move follows an announcement from Gov. Jay Inslee late last week, which dramatically restructured the plan and provided a timeline for when all COVID-19 restrictions may end.

Notably, without the governor's announcement, Pierce County very likely would have instead rolled back into Phase 1 this week: as of the latest update from the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department Monday evening, Pierce has a 14-day case rate per 100,000 of 356.3, and a hospitalization rate of 10.8 per 100,000. Both are high enough that, under the previous plan, the county would have failed into Phase 1, forcing an outright ban on indoor dining at restraints and social gatherings at home.

Instead, Pierce County is reopening into Phase 3, garnering the following improvements:

• Houses of worship, retailers, professional and personal services can reopen with 50 percent max capacity.
• Indoor dining also has maximum capacity boosted to 50 percent. Alcohol service can last an hour later, until midnight. Outdoor dining can now seat 10 people per table, up from six.
• Sporting competitions are allowed at all risk categories. Gyms and indoor training can return to 50 percent capacity. Up to 400 spectators can now attend sporting events, depending on the facility's capacity.
• Indoor entertainment venues may also seat up to 400 people, or 50 percent mass capacity, whichever is less.
• Outdoor entertainment venues can resume walk-up ticketing, and allow for up to 400 patrons.

Find more details on these changes on the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department's website.

Now that the county has entered Phase 3, no more rollbacks are expected from the state. Instead, the governor has said that all pandemic restrictions will be lifted by June 30, earlier if 70 percent of Washingtonians take their first dose of the coronavirus vaccine.

If the state is to reach that 70 percent goal, Pierce County will need to pick up the pace. The county's vaccination rate has consistently lagged behind the statewide average, and in some rural parts of the county just 25 to 30 percent of residents have gotten a single dose. To make the vaccine as easy to access as possible, the health department has changed the Tacoma Dome mass vaccination clinic to clear space for more first dose patients. They are also now accepting walk-ins for all of the vaccination clinics listed on their website http://tpchd.org/vaxtothefuture.