Reopening business and modifying physical distancing measures. Gov. Jay Inslee detailed his phased reopening approach in a news conference on May 1.

OLYMPIA — On May 4, Gov. Jay Inslee will extend his ‘Stay Home, Stay Healthy’ order until May 31.

In an address on May 1, Inslee announced his plan to continue the stay home order, while setting in motion a four phase plan to reopen the state. Ten smaller counties will be able to apply to open parts of their economies sooner than the state as a whole. Pacific County was not one of the counties selected.

Those 10 counties are: Columbia, Garfield, Jefferson, Lincoln, Pend Oreille, Skamania, Wahkiakum, Kittitas, Ferry and Grays Harbor.

Inslee’s announcement came two days after he gave a news conference on the data driving his administration’s decisions of when and what to reopen.

Phases

To monitor how each phase changes the spread of covid-19, Inslee said the state will wait about three weeks after the start of each phase before starting the next one. The state will not start a new phase until the one before it was judged safe. Phase one is already underway after Inslee allowed existing construction projects to resume and reopened some outdoor recreation.

Smaller counties

The 10 counties allowed to begin phase two were selected because of their small population sizes and low covid-19 activity. Each county would need approval from its local health department and board of county commissioners.

Before moving to phase two, the 10 counties would also need to submit plans to the state Health Department regarding surge capacity and PPE supplies.

In the next two weeks the state Health Department and the Governor’s office will look at allowing additional counties to apply to move into the second reopening phase.

“We know that not every part of our state has been hit equally hard by this disease,” Inslee said.

None of the counties selected had a new confirmed case of covid-19 in the last three weeks, except Pend Oreille, which confirmed its last case on April 13. Pend Oreille’s population size was estimated at about 13,700 people in 2019.

Also, none of the counties have a population of more than 50,000, except Grays Harbor, which has a population of more than 75,000 people. Grays Harbor County was notified of its most recent confirmed case of covid-19 on April 10. 

Pacific County Public Health Officer Dr. Steven Krager said counties need to have three weeks with no new cases before being considered for phase two. 

Pacific County was notified of its most recent confirmed covid-19 case on April 20. Pacific County’s population was estimated at a little more than 22,000 people in 2019. As of May 1, the county had three confirmed cases of covid-19 involving people within the county, and one confirmed death from covid-19 involving someone who was living outside the county when they were diagnosed with the disease.

Pacific County was not consulted about whether it would be prepared to move to phase two, said Katie Lindstrom, director of the Pacific County Department of Health and Human Services.

Pacific County Commissioner Lisa Olsen said she was disappointed by some aspects of the governor’s announcement.

“While I appreciate the possibility of a more localized ability to move through these phases rather than the previous ‘one size fits all’ approach I am absolutely unable to explain to our citizens why Pacific County was not on the list of smaller, lower impacted counties that will be allowed to do so,” Olsen said.

Earlier this week, Pacific County’s Board of Commissioners along with several city mayors from around the county voiced support for a plan to reopen in collaboration with neighboring counties, especially Grays Harbor. This was in part because the counties’ beaches connect.

All beach approaches from the Columbia River up to the Hoh River were closed as of April 29, said Scott McDougall, director of Pacific County’s Emergency Management Agency. 

“If Pacific County were to make the choice to open their beach approaches it would effectively be breaching the dike and it would flood all of our stakeholders who would prefer not to be flooded at this point,” McDougall said during a April 29 meeting with Pacific County elected officials.

The state never closed Washington beaches. The decision of when to open beaches approaches belongs to cities and counties, not the state. 

Statistics on the 10 counties selected

Grays Harbor

• Population (2019 estimate): 75,061
• Population density: 37/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 12
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.21%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 10

Wahkiakum

• Population (2019 estimate): 4,488
• Population density: 15/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 2
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.23%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 4

Jefferson:

• Population (2019 estimate): 32,221
• Population density: 17/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 28
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 0.90%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 7

Skamania

• Population (2019 estimate): 12,083
• Population density: 7/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 3
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 0.99%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 8

Kittitas

• Population (2019 estimate): 47,935
• Population density: 20/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 14
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.45%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 8

Lincoln

• Population (2019 estimate): 10,939
• Population density: 4/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 2
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.42%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 8

Ferry

• Population (2019 estimate): 7,627
• Population density: 4/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 1
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.61%
• Date of last confirmed case: March 17

Pend Oreille

• Population (2019 estimate): 13,724
• Population density: 9/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 2
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.52%
• Date of last confirmed case: April 13

Columbia

• Population (2019 estimate): 3,985
• Population density: 5/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 1
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 1.61%
• Date of last confirmed case: March 8

Garfield

• Population (2019 estimate): 2,225
• Population density: 3/square mile
• Confirmed cases: 0
• Confirmed total tests as of April 29 (% of population): 0.76%
• Date of last confirmed case: N/A