Some of Washington’s hardest hit counties will be moving out of the state’s modified phase one of reopening, Gov. Jay Inslee announced on Tuesday.
Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Franklin, and Yakima counties will all be moving to phase two this week, Inslee announced during a press conference on Tuesday afternoon.
The news comes months after Inslee slammed the breaks on further reopening counties in July.
The counties were each placed under a modified version of the governor’s three phases of reopening this summer, which included tweaks to rules regarding indoor and outdoor gatherings for community institutions and businesses.
Yakima, Benton, and Franklin have all seen some of the highest case numbers this year—a phenomenon that spurred a personal visit from the governor in June.
Inslee commended county residents for making “tremendous progress” in slowing the spread of COVID-19 in their regions over the last few months.
“This move will put these five counties on par with their neighboring counties,” Inslee said. “It is a relatively modest change, but we feel it’s appropriate to align these counties with the rest of the region. I’m grateful to each of these counties for doing what it takes to drive down the virus.”
Inslee said on Tuesday he believes the counties should be safe to move forward for the foreseeable future.
All Washington counties will now be in phase two or three of Inslee’s Safe Start plan, which is designed to gradually reopen the economy and social gatherings as COVID-19 case rates decline. Phase four will return counties to pre-pandemic operations.
Yakima county alone has seen more than 11,000 cases, roughly half the case count of King County. King County is home to 2.2 million people or nearly ten times the size of Yakima’s population.
According to a study released by Seattle Mayor Jenny Durkan, Washington’s most populous city could be seeing the fewest COVID-19 cases in the country.
As of Tuesday, Washington has reported more than 93,000 cases of COVID-19 and 2,190 deaths from the virus.
