Thurston County submits application to move to Phase 2 of re-opening
Thurston County has submitted its application to move to Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s four-phase “Safe Start” plan to re-open from the COVID-19 shutdown, with the state Secretary of Health likely deciding whether to approve the application this week.
The application was submitted early Tuesday afternoon.
County commissioners voted unanimously Tuesday morning to approve submitting the application — all three commissioners have supported moving forward in the process since new criteria announced last Tuesday made Thurston eligible to apply.
Though initial criteria limited such “variances” to smaller counties, the expanded criteria includes counties where there’s been fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 residents over a 14-day span.
Applying for a variance requires counties to show they have the necessary local hospital bed capacity and personal protective equipment for health care workers. Counties also must show they have the necessary testing capacity, resources to perform case investigations and contact tracing, number of isolation and quarantine facilities, and capacity to conduct outbreak investigations in settings such as jails and skilled nursing facilities.
The Thurston County Board of Health, made up of the same three county commissioners, took initial steps in the process Friday, voting unanimously to concur with Acting Health Officer Dr. Diana Yu that the county was ready to move forward.
“Moving to Phase 2 does not mean we’re out of the woods,” Dr. Yu said in a prepared statement Tuesday. “Social distancing and other measures remain extremely important for the safety of our community. However, we do have the capacity needed for expanded testing and contact tracing, and we are moving forward thoughtfully and with caution. We meet Gov. Inslee’s requirements to begin Phase Two.”
As of Saturday afternoon, state Secretary of Health John Wiesman had approved variances for 21 counties, including all of the counties bordering Thurston except Pierce. Counties in Phase 2 are Adams, Asotin, Columbia, Cowlitz, Ferry, Garfield, Grant, Grays Harbor, Island, Jefferson, Lewis, Lincoln, Mason, Pacific, Pend Orielle, San Juan, Skamania, Spokane, Stevens, Wahkiakum and Whitman.
Thurston, Clallam and Kitsap were eligible but still in Phase 1, according to DOH. Applications from Kittitas and Clark counties were on pause due to outbreak investigations.
Six of the approved counties — Adams, Island, Lewis, Mason, San Juan, and Spokane — became eligible to apply on the same day as Thurston. Last week, Commissioner Gary Edwards pushed for the county to expedite the process, if possible.
At Tuesday’s meeting, County Manager Ramiro Chavez said local Public Health staff worked to finalize details in the application over the weekend.
“I know that we have received some emails as to why we haven’t gotten quicker to this point,” Chavez said Tuesday. “And, again, as you see, the application‘s very comprehensive, and we needed to make sure that we crossed all the t’s and dot all the i’s just to make sure that we have a successful application.”
At a press conference Tuesday, Chair of the Board John Hutchings also addressed questions about how long the process took. He restated the county’s timeline, saying staff began working on the roughly 20-page application immediately last week, got the required letters from local hospitals, the Board of Health held an emergency meeting, and the three-day weekend added a bit to the delay.
Asked about a theory that the county may have been delaying its application in order to discourage people from gathering over the holiday weekend, Hutchings said that wasn’t the case.
“It had nothing to do with dragging our feet or waiting and not wanting people to celebrate the weekend or Memorial Day and have ceremonies — it had nothing to do with that at all,” he said.
Mayors Cheryl Selby of Olympia, Andy Ryder of Lacey, and JW Foster of Yelm joined Hutchings for the socially distant afternoon press conference to voice support for the step forward in re-opening. Mayor Pete Kmet was supposed to attend but was “under the weather,” according to Hutchings.
The local leaders lauded the efforts of public health officials, city and county staff, health care workers, workers at essential businesses, nonprofits, and residents for making sacrifices in order to slow the spread of the coronavirus. They also reiterated that the virus isn’t gone and stressed the importance of following public health guidance as the economy opens up.
“Our message out to our community is: Good job, stay the course, and we can get through this together to face this challenge,” Mayor Foster said.
Wiesman can approve Thurston’s plans as submitted, approve them with modifications, or deny the application altogether. The timeline for a decision varies, a state Department of Health spokesperson wrote in an email to The Olympian last week, but the state aims to review applications within 1-3 days of receiving them.
As of last Thursday, the state had not rejected any variance applications from eligible counties, according to the DOH spokesperson.
If Thurston’s application is approved, it will be the second-largest county in the state, after Spokane County, to have permission to move to Phase 2, according to U.S. Census Bureau population estimates.
Moving to Phase 2 will allow the re-opening of some businesses and activities, including:
- Physically distanced gatherings of 5 or fewer people outside a household;
Outdoor recreation, such as camping, with 5 or fewer people from outside a household;
- In-home/domestic services, such as nannies and housecleaning;
- In-store retail purchases, with restrictions;
- Hair and nail salons;
- Pet grooming;
- Restaurants, at less than 50% capacity, with tables seating no more than five people and no bar-area seating;
- Office-based businesses, though telework will still be encouraged.
Under the governor’s plan, each phase will last at least three weeks and could last longer — variances to move from one phase to the next can also be revoked if data shows circumstances in a county have changed.
Until the application is approved by the state, Thurston County remains in Phase 1. Even in Phase 2, local public health officials stress that residents should still practice social distancing, wash hands frequently, and wear cloth face coverings in public where social distancing isn’t possible. It’s also recommended that residents not travel far from home to recreate or do business.
“I’ve heard the process of reopening our country referred to as ‘the balance between the hammer and the dance,’” Mayor Selby said at Tuesday’s press conference. “We now get the chance to dance — slowly, with a mask, and six feet apart from strangers. But it’s a chance.
If we blow the Phase 2 dance, the hammer will come down quickly, and we’ll get knocked back to Phase 1. But, much more importantly, what we stand to lose if we don’t continue to follow CDC guidelines is that more of our friends and family will get sick or worse, lose their lives.”
This story was originally published May 26, 2020 at 2:53 PM.
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