Pierce County Stuck In Phase 2 As Governor Announces Pause

TACOMA, WA — Pierce County will remain stuck in Phase 2 for the near future, following a surprise announcement from Gov. Jay Inslee pausing all phase changes for at least the next two weeks.

"This means all counties for the next two weeks will stay in the current phase that they're in this morning," the governor said at conference announcing the pause Tuesday.

Previously the plan had been that, every three weeks the Washington State Department of Health (DOH) would review all 39 of Washington's counties and places them in Phases 1, 2 or 3 depending upon their recent COVID-19 case counts and hospitalization rates. Before the governor's announcement, rollbacks had been set for Friday.

So far, forced rollbacks have only happened once, on April 12, when the DOH review found Pierce, Cowlitz and Whitman counties did not meet the requirements to remain in Phase 3. Ferry County later also voluntarily moved back following a superspreader event.

The pause on phase changes means those are the only four counties stuck in Phase 2, despite the fact that other counties, including neighboring King County, almost certainly have failed the DOH's metrics to remain in Phase 3.

For counties with populations over 50,000 to qualify for Phase 3, they need to have either:

• Fewer than 200 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 population per 14 days.
• Fewer than 5 COVID-19 hospitalizations per 100,000 population per 7 days.

Pierce County has a 14-day case rate of 374.2 per 100,000, according to the latest publicly-available DOH data.

"At the end of the two-week pause we will evaluate the metrics at that time, the number of cases per hundred thousand, the hospitalizations," Inslee said. "This is not a change to the phase plan, but we are pausing it for two weeks as we continue to evaluate the changing conditions."

The governor's hope is that the fourth wave has plateaued and within the next two weeks the situation will have calmed and the dozen or so counties that would have failed this week's review and fallen back into Phase 2 will instead see improvement — good news for them, but cold comfort for Pierce and the other counties that have already been forced back.

County leaders had been hoping to turn the situation around in the weeks since Pierce was first moved into Phase 2, but unfortunately their efforts to boost vaccination rates and curb transmissions were trounced by the fourth wave of COVID-19 infections that has wracked the entire state.

Shortly before Pierce County was rolled back in April, several local leaders, including County Executive Bruce Dammeier and Tacoma Mayor Victoria Woodards, issued a letter to the governor asking the county's review be placed on pause — a request the governor denied. Tuesday, the governor did not directly comment on the disparity or explain why Pierce County was forced to roll back when other counties are now being protected by a statewide pause, but the overall plateau in case counts may be one reason the state's response has changed.

"We are hopeful that these trends will start to do go down, we're hopeful that they will, they could just go right back at an accelerating curve and I think we have to make decisions based on that," Inslee said.

"There's no real playbook to COVID, it's brand new," Inslee said. "We are making very difficult decisions based on the best science we have."

While Pierce County's failure to move ahead is likely disappointing for local leaders, it's not entirely without warning: case counts have been consistently climbing for the past month, so even before the governor's pause the county had been poised to remain in Phase 2 regardless. As it became clear late last month that the county would likely not be moving ahead, precautions were taken to help weather the continuing lockdown.

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.

Due to the pause, the state's next review — and the next opportunity for Pierce to re-enter Phase 3 — will be on May 17. While the county waits, local health leaders are encouraging everyone 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," writes Pierce County Health Director Anthony Chen. "Every day more people in Pierce County get vaccinated, and that means, every day we get closer to putting the pandemic behind us."

“Me choosing not to get vaccinated would put other people in the community at risk,” said Tacoma-Pierce County Board of Health Member Jani Hitchens. “If you think about it with that mentality, it’s simple.”

According to the latest DOH data, a total 542,440 vaccine doses have been administered in Pierce County.

"Anybody who is frustrated by the changes that we have seen both in our protocols and during this pandemic, you can do something about that. You can find somebody who hasn't been vaccinated yet," Inslee said.

Related stories:

King County Avoids Rollback: Inslee Pauses Phase Changes

Pierce County Council Signs Off On $50 Million In Pandemic Relief