Gov. Inslee: all counties in Washington state will go to phase three, including Yakima |

Restrictions will begin to lift as Washington’s 39 counties will soon move to a new third phase in Gov. Jay Inslee’s COVID-19 reopening plan, including Yakima. 

Inslee’s announcement Thursday to changes in his Healthy Washington reopening plan will allow restaurants, retailers, fitness centers and other indoor spaces to open up to 50% capacity. The changes — most of which kick in on March 22 — will automatically take effect across the state.

The announcement arrives as cases of the new coronavirus have been declining in Washington state and vaccinations against COVID-19 continue to expand.

Starting March 22, every county in Washington will automatically move to the new third phase.

The new phase will allow outdoor events in facilities with permanent seating to have up to 25% capacity, with masks and distancing required. That will allow not only spectators at Mariners games, but also for games by the Sounders, Reign and other teams. It also includes high school sports, rodeos, motorsports and other outdoor events.

For youth sports and high school sports, the new provisions will kick in even earlier, on March 18.

The third phase will also boost occupancy for indoor spaces to 50%.

Inslee’s announcement also includes changes the overall structure of the plan, which took effect in January and broke Washington into eight regions that could move backward or forward.

Under that plan, some counties — including King, Pierce and Snohomish — advanced to the second phase in late January and started reopening, resuming indoor dining and fitness centers at 25% capacity. Since then, every county in the state has moved to that phase and those capacity restrictions.

Ever since then, groups like the Washington Hospitality Association have urged the governor to allow restaurants to open up to 50%.

The changes announced Thursday bring back a county-by-county approach to lifting or reapplying restrictions, with counties being evaluated every three weeks. Larger counties must hit a series of benchmarks for two public-health metrics that decide whether why will advance or regress.

Those are new cases per 100,000 people over 14 days and new COVID-19 hospitalizations per seven days.

Counties with a population of 50,000 or fewer will be evaluated simply on the number of new COVID-19 cases over two weeks, and new hospitalizations over seven days.

If the state’s intensive care unit capacity at any point reaches 90% or higher, all counties will move back to phase one, which prohibits indoor dining, and shuts down among other things, gyms and entertainment events.

Margaux Maxwell reports for the Yakima Herald-Republic and the Walla Walla Union-Bulletin. She can be reached at [email protected].