Board of County Commissioners object to governor's new COVID-19 recovery plan

COLUMBIA COUNTY—The Board of Columbia County Commissioners has gone on record to let Washington State Governor Jay Inslee know they are displeased with the COVID-19 Healthy Washington – Roadmap to Recovery plan.

The Healthy Washington – Roadmap to Recovery plan is using a regional approach for a phased recovery. The state has designated eight regions, with Columbia County part of the South-Central Region, Kittitas, Yakima, Walla Walla, Benton, and Franklin counties. All eight regions start in Phase 1 of the recovery plan, beginning on Jan. 11.

Regions must meet four metrics to move out of Phase 1 and into Phase 2: There must be a decreasing trend in the 14-day rate of new COVID-19 cases, per 100k population; a decreasing trend in the 14-day rate of new COVID-19 hospital admissions, per 100k populations; an average seven-day percent occupancy of ICU staffed beds less, than 90-percent; and seven-days with the percent positivity of COVID-19 tests, less than 10-percent.

Last week, County Commissioner Ryan Rundell said the board is opposed to being included with the counties in the South-Central Region.

“Each region was set so that there is a minimum of 250,000 people in it. At 4,000 people, Columbia County has no hope of moving the needle on the region’s overall number. Yakima, Benton, and Franklin counties will determine if we can move out of Phase 1,” said Rundell.

Rundell said Columbia County was among the first of all the counties in the state to move to Phase 3 in the initial phased plan.

He said the new phased approach shows a lack of regard for small counties, leaving control of Columbia County’s destiny in the hands of Yakima County.

Also, the new plan offers little hope for advancing. According to Rundell, this is despite the fact that local businesses, school districts, and the health systems have done much that is right.

Although the commissioners would prefer a county-by-county approach to recovery, placing Columbia County with Garfield and Asotin counties or placing Columbia County with Walla Walla and Garfield counties makes better sense, he said.

“This plan removes any control the local health systems had in offering the citizens and businesses hope for getting out of Phase 1,” said Rundell. “The people of the county have done wonderfully and will continue to persevere, but we had hoped that we would have a chance to control our own fortunes.”

The Commissioners sent a letter voicing their concern to Governor Inslee early last week, Rundell said.

According to the Washington State Governor’s Office, the regions are mostly based on Emergency Medical Services (EMS) regions used for evaluating healthcare services. The eight regions of four or more counties were divided according to available health care services based on metrics such as hospitalizations, case data, and disease mobility.

The Roadmap to Recovery plan is offering only two phases for recovery, at this time. Regions will be evaluated each Friday to determine when they can advance to Phase 2.

Once a region advances to Phase 2, criteria must continue to be met, or the region can be moved back to Phase 1.

A Roadmap to Recovery dashboard with the latest data and region phase designations is posted at https://tinyurl.com/y2cuyrry.