Snohomish County to ask for approval to enter Phase 2 of reopening
May 28, 2020, 12:33 PM | Updated: Oct 7, 2024, 9:32 am
Dave Somers, Snohomish County Executive. (Photo by Erika Schultz-Pool/Getty Images)
(Photo by Erika Schultz-Pool/Getty Images)
Snohomish County officials announced Thursday that they will be petitioning to enter into Phase 2 of reopening.
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“Snohomish County residents have paid a heavy price from the COVID-19 pandemic,” County Executive Dave Somers said in a news release. “We will respond to the pandemic with everything we have and recover as quickly as we can. We now must move forward with our request to enter Phase II and help our people safely get back to work.”
The county claims it has the requisite testing, contact tracing, and quarantine facilities needed to enter into Phase 2. In terms of whether its daily case numbers are sufficient, that’s a little more complicated.
Snohomish County says that its rate of infections “approaches the parameters set by the state, if subsets of irregular outbreaks, such as assisted living facilities, are taken into account, as the CDC allows.”
Before an application is submitted to the state Secretary of Health, the District Board of Health and the Snohomish County Council will need to approve it first. Both have emergency meetings scheduled for Friday to consider the proposal.
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“COVID-19 will be a threat for some time, but Snohomish County is now better prepared to manage the threat,” the county’s news release stated.
In total, 25 counties have received approval to enter into Phase 2, which allows for dine-in service at restaurants to resume, and the reopening of salons, barbershops, and more. It also allows for group gatherings of up to five people each week.
