Pierce County Wraps Last Full Week In Phase 2: Week In Review

PIERCE COUNTY, WA — Pierce County has been in a precarious position over the past month, and while case counts are too high and vaccination rates too low, there are signs of improvement, and reasons to be excited about the coming weeks.

The first, and most obvious reason to be looking forward: Gov. Jay Inslee has announced that, on Tuesday Pierce County will re-enter Phase 3 of the Healthy Washington - Roadmap to Recovery plan, allowing most businesses to reopen at up to 50 percent capacity. The county has now spent nearly a month stuck back in Phase 2, which has restricted capacity and taken a toll on local businesses.

Local leaders are celebrating the news, and there's even more good news on the horizon: starting June 30 all of Washington will fully reopen and drop all COVID-19 restrictions.

"On June 30, a huge number of our restrictions will be removed, the ones people will be familiar with at restaurants and gyms and the like," Inslee said. "We're very pleased to be able to announce this. We have more work to do, but this should give us a good path forward in reopening our state."

That could happen even earlier, if 70 percent of Washingtonians 16+ take their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

Another restriction lifted this week was the statewide mask mandate. Thursday, the Centers for Disease Control announced new guidance saying residents who have been fully vaccinated no longer need to wear masks indoors or practice social distancing. Shortly after, Washington adopted that guidance, though some stores will still continue to require masks regardless.

Read more: WA Grocery Stores, Retailers Adapting To New Mask Guidance

Speaking of vaccines, this week the state also expanded vaccine eligibility to include everyone 12-years-old or older after the FDA cleared the Pfizer vaccine for use in patients 12-15. Right now the Pfizer vaccine remains the only COVID-19 vaccine available to patients under 18.

And in other good news for kids and parents alike: school is back. Thursday state education leaders announced that all Washington schools must plan for full-time, in-person education for the 2021-2022 school year. Several Pierce County school districts had already made that decision independently, but the new guidance means that all children across the county and the state will have the option to get back into the classroom.

"Our students will be learning from their school buildings full-time in the upcoming school year," said State Superintendent Chris Reykdal. "Students may choose to enroll in a remote learning program, but school districts may not offer hybrid or remote learning to the exclusion of full-time, in-person learning for any student who seeks that option."

While those improvements are worth celebrating, the county is still grappling with elevated coronavirus transmissions and hospitalizations, though both appear to be at the start of a downward trend. According to the Tacoma - Pierce County Health Department's (TPCHD) latest update Friday, the county has a 14-day case rate of 356.3 infections per 100,000 residents, and hospitalization rate of 10.8 per 100,000. Those rates are both high enough that, Pierce County would've failed back into Phase 1, had the DOH continued their COVID-19 metric evaluations (as they had planned to before Inslee's announcement Thursday).

"The 14-day case rate dropped from a peak of 379.1 per 100,00 last week, to 364 this week," writes TPCHD's Stephanie Dunkel. "While we still have a ways to go, we’re hopeful this marks the beginning of a downward trend."

Pierce also remains behind much of the state in vaccination. According to the Washington State Department of Health, just 47.76 percent of Pierce County's eligible population has had one or more dose of the COVID-19 vaccine. Statewide, 57 percent of all eligible Washingtonians have taken at least one dose. Neighboring King County is doing even better, with 69.43 percent of residents 16+ having taken at least one shot.

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.