Governor Inslee
During two addresses to the state on April 21 and 22, Governor Jay Inslee spoke about the plans that are being developed for reopening Washington. His overarching goals include restarting the local economy and protecting Washingtonians' health.
"One month ago with our state facing stark projections of an unmitigated public health and economic disaster, with the support of the legislature, my office took decisive action to save our friends and our families from that fate," said Inslee. "The vast majority of Washingtonians are staying home and slowing the spread [of COVID-19]. Today the state health officer informed me that the spread of COVID-19 is likely declining in Washington State. We see this in the analysis of point in time data on hospitalizations in confirmed cases and deaths from the beginning of this crisis to now."
"Some want to know when you can move on," he continued. "Some Washingtonians want to know whether they'll make rent or mortgage payments. Some more families have put weddings on hold. Workers feel the burning need to get back to the stability and pride derived from their labors. Business owners want to unlock their doors again. So tonight, I'd like to talk with you about what the process of lifting COVID-19 restrictions will look like. It will look more like a turning of a dial than a flip of a switch. We're going to take steps and then monitor to see whether they work or if we must continue to adapt."
Inslee went on to explain that many of the Stay Home, Stay Healthy restrictions will not be lifted by May 4. The restriction that will be lifted depends on the health modeling projection that is predicting the course of the virus.
The closure of small businesses and close contact events will not be among the first of the restrictions lifted. Currently the plan is to let elective surgeries resume, let people take part in more outdoor activities, and let a limited amount of construction with safety measures in place to restart.
"We hope that the data comes in during the next few days so we can implement these measures and we can modify some of these restrictions in the coming weeks if the health modeling holds up," he said. "The health of Washingtonians is our top priority. We need healthy people in order to build a healthy economy. The data tells us that if we were to lift all restrictions right now or even two weeks from now, this decline would almost certainly stop and the spread of COVID-19 would go up."
"A strategic approach guided by science not politics," he said. "It does not differ greatly from the recovery plans of other western states. It does not differ greatly from the principles of the White House's National Recovery outline either."
The key to controlling the spread of COVID-19 is widely available testing of individuals, according to Inslee. He also stated that contact tracing will be put into place soon so the transmission of the virus can be interrupted and stopped. Pointing out that the United States is lacking testing supplies along with Washington, the governor mentioned that the state has more lab capacity than they have test kits and supplies.
Inslee also pointed out that in order to survive this crisis, businesses and workers need to implement ample physical distancing, screen workers, and clean work environments. This is done to protect the most vulnerable of the population, those over 65 and with underlying health conditions. Other steps that need to be taken is the bolstering of the food banks to make sure everyone has food, providing safe housing, and taking care of those in need of behavioral health services.
"This crisis has tied us to the mast through a storm, but the efforts of 7.6 million Washingtonians are keeping us afloat," Inslee stated. "We've already come through part of this storm together. We're still here together and we're still faithful in what we can accomplish as a community. Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself -- nameless, unreasoning, unjustified terror which paralyzes needed efforts to convert retreat into advance.' Well We're looking forward to making advances against this virus and we know that only science and data and informed reasoning and confidence in ourselves is going to lift us out of this crisis."
"What I'm saying is that obviously we cannot state unequivocally when other businesses could reopen because we can't make decisions based on arbitrary dates we've got to make it on real data," Inslee said. "The day of reopening our whole economy certainly is not today. It would be way too dangerous and all of our data shows that if we did this today, this virus would return with a vengeance."