On April 12th, Gov. Jay Inslee announced Pierce County would move back to Phase 2 of the reopening phases. Pierce County did not meet the requirements to remain in Phase 3 and the setback will be effective on April 16th. So, the question is, why did we move back to Phase 2? 

According to the Tacoma-Pierce County Health Department, to stay in Phase 3, Pierce County needed to meet one of the following Roadmap to Recovery metrics during the 3-week evaluation period. These include having under 200 new cases of Covid-19 per 100,000 people during the 14 days and having under 5 hospitalizations per 100,000 people in 7 days. Pierce County had 250.3 new cases of Covid-19 and 6.8 hospitalizations.  

Since Pierce County will move back to Phase 2, this would mean that all food establishments, movie theaters, gyms, retail stores, and more will have to keep their businesses at 25% of capacity. It would also mean that a maximum of 5 people that are not from your household can go inside your house and a maximum of 15 people can stay outside of your household, as long as you stay 6 feet apart. 

The next evaluation to see if we can move up again to Phase 3 will be on May 3rd.