Staying In Phase 3: King County Avoids Rollbacks For Now

SEATTLE — King County will remain in Phase 3 for at least two more weeks after Gov. Jay Inslee announced a pause in the Roadmap to Recovery on Tuesday. The state's most populous county was widely expected to face a rollback this week, after failing both of the state's metrics on case counts and hospitalizations.

"Today I am announcing a two-week pause on our phased reopening plan," Inslee said. "This means all counties, the next two weeks, will stay in the current phase that they are in this morning. At the end of the two-week pause, we will evaluate the metrics at that time. This not a change to the phase plan, but we are pausing it for two weeks as we continue to evaluate the changing conditions in the state of Washington."

Last week, Dr. Jeff Duchin, King County's health officer, indicated a rollback was all but inevitable and the director of Public Health - Seattle & King County told the council to prepare for the return of Phase 2.

"The dates on which those metrics are calculated are in the past; it's already happened, and it's a done deal," Duchin said last Friday. "As much as I would love to go back in time and change things in a way that would decrease the number of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations that occurred in King County, I just can't do that."

As it turns out, going back in time was not needed after all — just pausing it. Inslee said his decision was based on the consultation with the most recent analysis of data by the State Department of Health.

"This decision is based on the information that we've been able to analyze just in the last few days and that has come in on a daily basis," Inslee said. "We're responding to what we've learned with that most recent information, as we always have. I think our flexibility throughout this pandemic has been one of the reasons that we've had a great deal of success."

In making the decision to pause, officials pointed to early signs of a plateau in the fourth wave of infections. Duchin said the two-week timeframe will give health officials a better idea of whether the recent improvements are sustaining, especially as more people become immunized.

"The two-week pause provides time to see which direction we are heading and whether we are turning the corner on the fourth wave, while we continue to do everything we possibly can to get more people vaccinated — especially younger adults — to decrease future risk," Duchin said. "Our best path out of the painful cycle of COVID-19 resurgences and restrictions — and for a return to normalcy as quickly as possible — is by getting vaccinated as soon as possible."

Staying in Phase 3 means keeping capacity levels intact for more indoor activities, which would have been cut to 25 percent in Phase 2. Spectators will continue to be welcome at sporting events, and capacity limits can even increase under new state guidance that allows special seating areas for vaccinated groups.

The three counties that moved back to Phase 2 last month will stay there for now: Pierce, Whitman and Cowlitz. Local health authorities in Ferry County voluntarily moved back to Phase 2 last week, following several recent outbreaks.

With older adults broadly protected through vaccination, the latest wave of infections and hospitalizations has been driven by younger people whose immunization rates are lower. Increasing vaccination rates while doing more to suppress transmission will be essential to prevent a rollback after the pause, health officials said.

"Whether we're talking about Phase 2 or Phase 3, the main reason we need these restrictions at all is because not enough of us are vaccinated currently," Duchin said. "Just as we had no playbook to guide us when we experienced the first COVID-19 outbreak in the United States...there's no playbook for the endgame of this pandemic. But I'm sure all of us want to avoid a prolonged game of whack-a-mole with imposing and easing restrictions. Vaccination is the cure."

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