Pierce County Likely To Remain In Phase 2: Week In Review

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — On Monday the Washington State Department of Health will review all 39 of the state's counties to determine if they belong in phases 1, 2, or 3 of the Healthy Washington plan.

Unfortunately, despite efforts from local leaders to bolster vaccination rates, cut daily case counts and get the county back into Phase 3, the latest available data shows that Pierce County will very likely remain stuck in Phase 2.

In order for Pierce County to re-enter Phase 3, it will need either:

• Fewer than 200 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the 14 days leading up to the review.
• Fewer than 5 COVID-19 related hospitalizations per 100,000 residents in the past week.

As of the latest update from the Washington State Department of Health, the county's 14-day case rate is 366.3 — high enough that, if it was the sole metric, Pierce County would instead be pushed back into Phase 1, re-implementing even stricter pandemic lockdown regulations.

Fortunately, the county would need to fail both the hospitalization rate and the case rate to fall back farther, and while the hospitalization rate is no longer available to the public, as of last week it was holding steady around 7.2: high enough to keep Pierce County in Phase 2, but not high enough to fail into Phase 1.

Cowlitz, Pierce, Ferry, and Whitman are the only counties that have been pushed back into Phase 2 thus far, but many more will join them next week, as the whole state has been grappling with a growing fourth wave of COVID-19 infections. Following Monday's review, neighboring King County is very likely to be pushed back into Phase 2 as well. Some counties are doing so poorly, they may even fall back into Phase 1, the DOH says.

"There are a dozen or so counties that are on the border or exceeding the metrics to move to Phase 2 or stay in Phase 2," said Deputy Secretary of the COVID-19 response Lacy Fehrenbach at a news conference Thursday. "There are even some that are close to Phase 1."

Unlike the previous review on April 12, the results of Monday's review will not be announced until the next day. Counties that fail the review and fall back into earlier phases will move into those phases the following Friday.

Though Pierce County is likely to remain stuck in Phase 2 when next Friday rolls around, local leaders are doing what they can to keep spirits high and the economy running. In a post on the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department's (TPCHD) Reliable Source Blog, Health Director Anthony Chen says he's proud of the way the county has faced recent pandemic challenges with resilience, patience and grit.

"A community has grit when it faces problems together, when it finds solutions instead of blame," writes Chen. "When Pierce County moved back to Phase 2 in Governor Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery, it was a disappointing setback for all of us, but I am certain Pierce County has the grit to get back to Phase 3 and beyond."

To keep residents and local businesses above water while the county waits for the situation improves, Thursday the Pierce County Council approved a $50.5 million COVID-19 relief plan. In that spending is $4 million to double the county's Rollback Relief Grant Program, a program to support businesses who have lost money due to Phase 2 rollback with up to $10,000 in grants.

While residents wait for the day the county can re-enter Phase 3, local health leaders are encouraging them to go out and get vaccinated, if they have not already.

"COVID-19 vaccines are rolling out at a steady pace and many of our most vulnerable residents are protected," Chen said. "Every day more people in Pierce County get vaccinated, and that means, every day we get closer to putting the pandemic behind us."

The local health department has recently set up two fixed vaccination clinics in Tacoma and Lakewood, and the Tacoma Dome has been converted into a mass vaccination site as well. If that's not enough, residents can also check local pharmacies to find the vaccine for free, by using the state's Vaccine Locator tool, and the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department is hosting a number of walk-up, drop-in clinics which can be found on their website.

"Now that everyone 16 and older are eligible for the COVID-19 vaccine, our best strategy to overcome COVID-19 is for people to get vaccinated," writes Ingrid Friberg, TPCHD epidemiologist.

According to the latest update from the health department, there have been at least 525,661 vaccine doses administered to Pierce County residents, including 40,222 in the week ending last Saturday.

Total coronavirus cases, hospitalizations and deaths in Pierce County:

Editors note: Patch is updating these totals on a weekly, rather than daily, basis. Readers should keep in mind that the increases below represent infections and deaths over a seven-day period.

The above numbers are provided by the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, and some numbers differ from the totals provided separately by the Washington State Department of Health.