VANCOUVER, Wash. — Clark County has been approved to move to Phase 2 of Gov. Jay Inslee’s reopening plan, Washington state Secretary of Health John Wiesman announced Friday.
Phase 2 allows various businesses to reopen. It also allows people to host small gatherings, with no more than five guests from outside the household within a week.
Outdoor recreation such as camping and visiting beaches can also resume as long as it involves no more than five people from outside a household.
The move to Phase 2 is effective immediately.
The county's Phase 2 application was put on hold May 23 after dozens of people connected with Firestone Pacific Foods tested positive for coronavirus. Wiesman asked the county to submit a new application.
Clark County can apply to move to Phase 3 of the reopening plan after three weeks in Phase 2.
In order for counties to move to the next phase of reopening, Wiesman evaluates the following metrics, in addition to other information provided by counties:
- COVID-19 activity: The ideal target for new cases will be 25 or fewer per 100,000 residents over a 14-day period. Hospitalizations for COVID should be flat or decreasing.
- Healthcare system readiness: The available hospital beds in a given jurisdiction would preferably be at less than 80% occupancy.
- Testing: Counties should show they have adequate testing capacity, 50 times as many people per day as they have confirmed new cases per day – which equates to positive test results under 2%. They also need to show rapid turnaround time for test results.
- Case and contact investigations: The goal is to contact 90 percent of cases by phone or in person within 24 hours of receipt of a positive lab test result. There is also a goal of reaching all that person’s contacts within 48 hours of a positive test result.
- Protecting high-risk populations: The ideal number of outbreaks reported by week – defined as two or more non-household cases where transmission occurred at work, in congregate living, or in an institutional setting – is zero for counties under 75,000, and no higher than three for the largest counties.
Learn more about Gov. Inslee’s plan here.
