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Governor Inslee is giving an update on Washington's Stay Home, Stay Health Order and the Safe Start WA Plan.
**This thread will attempt to summarize key points.**
#COVID19 #Coronavirus https://twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1266455360744722432
**This thread will attempt to summarize key points.**
#COVID19 #Coronavirus https://twitter.com/GovInslee/status/1266455360744722432
Three months after we declared a state of Emergency, we are successfully moving forward 26 counties have been approved to move to Phase 2 Decisions are based on metrics and benchmarks created by public health officials, they are targets not individual requirements
The DOH is monitoring these benchmarks and decisions across categories to make reopening decisions First is COVID-19 Activity: Target is 25 cases or fewer per 100k residents
Second is Health Care System capacity: Target is less than 80% capacity
Third is Testing Capacity: Target is 50 times as many people per day tested as cases confirmed
Fourth is Contact Tracing: Target here is to contact 90% of contacts w/in 24 hours of receiving positive test result
Fifth is Protecting the Vulnerable: Targets here are 0-3 "outbreaks" per week, depending on county size
Another important piece is that we now giving counties more flexibility to move ahead in a "Modified Phase 1"
This is for counties who don't quite meet Phase 2 requirements but might be able to propose certain activities they can demonstrate are safe, like haircuts or outdoor classes These will be judged on an individual basis.
As a reminder, need three weeks for counties to move b/w phases, so potentially the earliest any county could move to Phase 3 would be 6/3, given that we need three weeks between phases for counties
As another important step in Safe Start, we are implementing new and necessary guidance for workers to wear, at a minimum, face coverings at work except when working alone This won't apply if you work alone or have no contact w/ other ppl This will take effect June 8th
Dr. John Lynch, Harborview and UW Faculty:
What has influenced this face covering decision?
We've learned a lot about the virus, we are slowly rolling back physical distancing measures...
What has influenced this face covering decision? We've learned a lot about the virus, we are slowly rolling back physical distancing measures...
...many people have minimum symptoms and can still spread the virus, virus transmits via droplets from coughing/sneezing Masks protect others around you, it protects you to some degree, and it helps prevent you from touching your face
Masks need to stay above your nose and below your chin, fit snugly, and wash your hands before and after you take them on / off Important to recognize that some people can't wear masks all the time, like kids under 2, or people with certain health concerns
This is one of many other things - physical distancing is still there, so is staying home when sick - this is one more piece to help reduce the result
Gov. Inslee:
Really important for people to understand: we're just not done yet. This can increase very rapidly, as we've seen in many places around the world.
Really important for people to understand: we're just not done yet. This can increase very rapidly, as we've seen in many places around the world.
We can prevent this from coming back and increasing dramatically again but only if we replace what we were doing, which was having some considerable success, with another approach
Think of it as were were on a life boat of physical distancing, we are now getting into a new life boat of contact tracing, etc. and we need to make sure that boat doesn't have any holes in it
Friendly reminder, there are things we can do to stay safe - one is continue to stay home if it's not necessary to go out. If you can continue to avoid exposing yourself, please do so.
Another is to try to stay local, there are lots of beautiful places to go in WA, but for the moment these communities would appreciate it if we don't overwhelm them. Let's try to stay home and local as much as we can.
We also know that the COVID pandemic has exposed inequities in our society. We have lots of work to do to remedy the centuries of inequity in our society.
This pandemic has demonstrated this b/c we have to do things to help folks. We want to keep going in this direction.
/That concludes the summary of the briefing. Please excuse typos and brevity.
As details emerge, this thread will attempt to aggregate relevant details and coverage.
