Washington Celebrates Reopening Day As Most Restrictions Lift

OLYMPIA, WA — Washington and Oregon became two of the last states to reopen Wednesday, lifting most of the remaining pandemic restrictions more than 15 months after the first stay-at-home orders were issued. New Mexico was scheduled to reopen Thursday, leaving only Hawaii, where leaders are keeping some precautions in place until the state crosses the 70 percent threshold for fully vaccinated residents.

In Washington, state health officials said more than half of the population was fully vaccinated by reopening day, and just under 70 percent of residents 16 and older had at least their first dose.

Gov. Jay Inslee kicked off reopening celebrations at Tacoma's Wright Park Wednesday morning, going maskless to address the crowd alongside Mayor Victoria Woodards and other local leaders.

"We are in the City of Destiny saying that it is our destiny to reopen Washington, and we are realizing that destiny today," Inslee said. "We are open big time in the state of Washington."

The governor also took some time to thank essential workers for working tirelessly through the pandemic to keep Washington running.

"We know why we have been able to realize this destiny," Inslee said. "It is because of our nurses that kept us healthy and worked so hard. It is because of our grocery workers and our agricultural workers who fed us through these difficult days. It is because of our law enforcement and fire department(s) who, in fact, took care of us and kept us safe."

Inslee headed to Spokane for another event Wednesday afternoon and has plans to visit Seattle on Thursday morning to raise the "Washington Ready" flag at the Space Needle, followed by a visit to Pike Place Market.

The state Department of Health also hosted an afternoon briefing to celebrate the milestone, reflect on a difficult year and highlight the work still left to be done.

"We are grateful for everyone who stayed home, kept their distance, wore masks [and] got vaccinated, and we know that hard work and that sacrifice saved lives and paved the way to reopening," said Dr. Umair Shah, state Secretary of Health. "We can look back and say that we in Washington have been successful."

Shah noted Washington ranked fifth in the nation for the lowest number of cases over the course of the pandemic, with the seventh lowest number of deaths by population, and the ninth highest full vaccination rate. Even with the relative success, Washington still logged nearly 450,000 cases and saw nearly 6,000 deaths since COVID-19 arrived.

With higher vaccination rates bringing daily case counts down across the state, health officials also shared a graph showing the stark contrast in hospital admission rates among people who have yet to be vaccinated.

"As we are commemorating today, and we know there is incredibly great news as we are seeing our state reopen, we also want to make sure that people recognize that this pandemic is not over, it's far from over, and we certainly want to do everything we can do to get people vaccinated. That work continues; that work does not stop."

Dr. Scott Lindquist, an epidemiologist and Washington's acting state health officer, noted three variants of concern — alpha, delta and gamma — continue to pose risks to people without vaccine protection.

"All the vaccines we have in Washington state still show effectiveness against these variants," Lindquist said. "It's much more of a risk to be unvaccinated in this state right now that it is any concern for the vaccine not working against these variants."

With the state reopened, most of Washington's longstanding pandemic restrictions and capacity limits are gone, with a few exceptions. Large indoor venues hosting events with 10,000 people or more attendees will have a 75 percent capacity cap unless they can verify the vaccination status of each guest. Officials will reevaluate the rule at the end of July.

For masks, the state's latest guidance allows unvaccinated people to go without face coverings indoors and outdoors, with some exceptions. Businesses also have the authority to continue their own masking policies voluntarily.

Learn more about the reopening changes on the Department of Health's website.