Fewer COVID-19 cases, more business activity: What’s next for Yakima County and reopening | Coronavirus
For nearly six years, Luis Mora and the other barbers at DC Barbershop cut hair out of a storefront off Yakima Avenue, near the Yakima Convention Center.
Within weeks of resuming operations after COVID-19 closures, Mora, the shop’s owner, knew the current location wouldn’t work in what he called the “new normal.” With the capacity and space requirements under modified Phase 1 of the state’s reopening plan, no more than two barbers could be in the shop. That limited the number of working hours for each barber.
“We didn’t want to take turns,” he said. “We all needed to make money.”
Less than a month later, DC Barbershop is a new space inside Southgate, a shopping center at the corner of South Third Avenue and West Nob Hill Boulevard.
With a larger space, all four barbers can cut hair with plenty of distance between them. As local and state public health officials lift restrictions, Mora can bring in more barbers.
“I just can’t wait to get back to normal, normal,” he said. “Not just the ‘new normal.’”
Reopening plans
For the past several weeks, Yakima County’s falling case counts have garnered praise and attention from state leaders and public health officials. Gov. Jay Inslee has noted Yakima County’s progress in numerous news conferences, including one on Thursday.
Now Yakima County residents are waiting to see more tangible rewards of that progress: The reopening of more business and the return of additional activities suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yakima County is one of five counties that remain in a modified Phase 1 of the state’s four-step reopening plan. A limited number of businesses, such as restaurants, retail and personal services have been able to resume or ramp up activity with numerous restrictions, including reduced capacity or social distancing.
Many businesses that qualify to reopen have opted to remain closed because the restrictions make it challenging to generate enough sales and activity to cover overhead costs. As a result, they have decided to wait until Yakima County is in further phases of the state reopening plan.
In early July, Inslee and the state Department of Health put a temporary, statewide pause of county applications to advance phases due to rising COVID-19 cases in the state. That pause became indefinite later in the month.
State officials made an exception to the pause in approving applications for Yakima, Benton and Franklin counties to move into modified Phase 1 in early July. When the pause went into effect, 17 counties were in Phase 3, and 17 counties were in Phase 2.
Yakima County has a ways to go to meet benchmarks the state required for counties to move to the next phase. Those criteria included having fewer than 25 cases per 100,000 people over two weeks. In Yakima County, the target is fewer than 63 cases over 14 days.
From Aug. 1 to Aug. 14, Yakima County had 219.2 cases per 100,000 people, or 561 total cases, according to the state Department of Health. It’s an improvement from the 700 per 100,000 people back in June when Yakima County was seeing upwards of 200 new cases a day.
While Yakima County remains in a modified Phase 1, more activity has been allowed.
Yakima County public health officials received approval from the state Department of Health to allow additional business, social and recreational activities in August. Outdoor seating at breweries, wineries and bars is now allowed, along with lap swimming and swim lessons and, starting Monday, curbside services at Yakima Valley Libraries. More retail activity was allowed.
In a news conference Thursday, Washington Secretary of Health John Wiesman said he and his staff continue to meet with Yakima officials weekly to discuss what changes can be made safely.
Ryan Ibach, the chief operating officer for the Yakima Health District, said that during these meetings, they discuss what activities permitted in Phase 2 in the statewide plan could also be allowed while Yakima County is in modified Phase 1. Recent discussions have covered indoor dining, indoor church services and additional fitness activities.
Once the Department of Health agrees to allow a new activity, local and state officials work on language and guidelines and then it’s added to the county’s reopening plan, known as the Roadmap to Recovery.
Numbers improving
Ibach said the falling case counts — along with a decline in hospitalizations — have been crucial in gaining approval from the state for new activities.
The latest state data shows that the percentage of hospital patients occupied by COVID-19 patients was at 5.6%. That’s below the 10% state benchmark. It’s also a notable improvement for the county from June when that rate was at nearly 20%.
Such progress has been crucial in gaining approval of new activities under the current phase, Ibach said.
“We’ll continue to add activities as cases continue to decline, and we keep seeing progress,” he said. “The big thing is that we don’t want to go backward.”
It remains crucial that Yakima County residents continue following safety guidelines, including mask-wearing and social distancing.
“We’re not out of this by far,” Ibach said. “We want to be fully open and not see any more hospitalizations or deaths. We need to keep up the good work we already started.”
