Gov. Jay Inslee has implemented a new “Healthy Washington — Roadmap to Recovery,” with revised COVID-19 phases. Beginning on January 11, 2021, Washington State is following a regional recovery approach with eight (8) regions of the state.
All eight regions are now in Phase 2 through at least Mar. 1, 2021.
- North (includes Whatcom County)
- North Central
- Northwest
- Southwest
- South Central
- East
- West
- Puget Sound
Washington has avoided overwhelming the state’s health care systems throughout this pandemic so far through rigorous safety measures, such as physical distancing and masking, as well as social and economic restrictions. This new recovery system aims to safely ease some restrictions while also maintaining crucial hospital capacity, ensuring care for Washingtonians that need it and paving the way for economic recovery.
Current Phases are listed in the following chart, and on the Governor’s Medium page.
Metrics to Move to Phase 2
Regions must meet three of the of the following four metrics in order to move to Phase 2:
- Decreasing trend of 10% or more in two-week rate of COVID-19 cases per 100k population;
- Decreasing trend of 10% or more in two-week rate of new COVID-19 hospitalizations;
- Less than 90% Intensive Care Unit (ICU) occupancy; and,
- COVID-19 test positivity of less than 10%.
DOH will reassess all the metrics every two weeks and announce any changes to current phase status. For more detailed information on where each of the eight regions falls with regards to the four metrics please visit the DOH website.
DOH, in partnership with Microsoft AI for Health, has launched the new Roadmap to Recovery dashboard that provides a detailed overview of the metrics used for measuring regional progress. The metrics and corresponding thresholds help determine if it is safe for a region to enter into a new phase of reopening. The four metrics presented in the dashboard include:
- Trend in 14-day rate of new COVID-19 cases per 100k population
- Trend in 14-day rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100k population
- Average 7-day percent occupancy of ICU staffed beds
- 7-day percent positive of COVID-19 tests
Media Contact: Ginny Streeter, WA Dept. of Health, Communications, 360-810-1628