In some areas of our state, kids are playing organized sports and libraries are allowed to open.

With the nation’s mood about the coronavirus about to radically shift, it’s not clear what comes next for areas like King County and Seattle that have been on a more cautious path to reopening than the rest of the state and most of the country even as metrics around infections and preparedness here near or exceed goals set by health officials.

“Things are different from place to place across county lines,” Gov. Jay Inslee told CHS Thursday. “That creates frustration.”

“We could avoid that frustration by just having one phase, one category for the whole state,” Inslee said. But that would mean areas “that have very, very little or no pandemic action” would also remain locked down.

The cautious tone on reopening Seattle from Inslee, who has been a leading and visible proponent of facemasks in the battle against COVID-19, was struck Thursday even before the crisis over positive tests at the White House became public.

In July after increasing outbreak numbers across the state, Washington halted its phased reopening process in which individual counties are allowed to apply for the next phases of loosened restrictions. King County entered Phase 2 in mid-June allowing a limited reopening of certain businesses and increased social interaction as state mandates over masks and improved readiness at hospitals helped keep hospitalizations and deaths in check.

Still, 758 people have died here of COVID-19 complications since the start of the outbreak. There have been 2,132 COVID-19 deaths in Washington

But there has been marked improvement in the county’s measures of key metrics used to decide on readiness for reopening. Across the county’s “key indicators” scorecard, only the measurements of new cases and case growth are categorized “not meeting target.”

Those two, of course, are the core measurements. And there are signs county and state healthy officials have their work cut out for them in driving them down. With the return of the school year, even though the University of Washington has moved its courses fully online, students have returned to area housing. An outbreak has already been reported — again — on Greek row.

“It is time to double down on the virus,” Gov. Inslee said.Thursday.

In response, the governor says state health officials are rolling out a new campaign to build on mostly successful messaging and requirements around facemasks that will extend the preventative measure into a new realm for some — the home, “a place where we’re going to have to learn how to enjoy our loved ones” in a new way, Inslee said.

The new state campaign will encourage mask wearing even inside houses and apartments this fall and winter as the governor and state officials hope to hold off new spikes in cases — and, just maybe, make progress on reopening.

Source: King County Public Health

One area of a softer step forward on lifting COVID-19 restrictions could come on the sports field. As the state is preparing new recommendations on sporting and athletic activities, rumors are spreading about a possible statewide relaxation of restrictions that could put amateaur players back on the field — if local officials make those fields available. At least one adult sports league in the Seattle area started taking sign-ups for league games starting as soon as next week.

It’s not just overeager athletes and sports parents. There are other, more important indications of preparedness for changing restriction levels. The Seattle Public Schools system is forming a “school reopening” task force, one of the few recent major initiatives from leaders in the Seattle area to even address the phase status of the area.

Phase 3’s gains in loosened requirements are mostly small, incremental steps that would open opportunities for amateur and youth sports play, larger personal gatherings, and increased capacities at venues like theaters and opening libraries.

Elsewhere, there are signs that many things you love about city living will remain on hold. Mayor Jenny Durkan’s 2021 budget is rife with sad bits of pandemic trivia as City Hall pounds out its spending plan for the next year. Cutbacks include library closures and parks facilities shut down through at least next summer. “The budget assumes that Library facilities will not fully reopen to the public for in-person services until July 2021,” the proposal cooly states. Transportation spending and bike projects will mostly be put on hold.

UPDATE: Local officials don’t seem eager to talk about the phase process. Representatives from the city and King County Health did not respond to CHS’s requests earlier this week for comment on the situation around phase applications with the state. A representative handling discussions between the city’s business communities and the mayor’s office responded but has yet to provide a statement or answers to our questions.

Other serious fallout looms. Inslee said Thursday he has not yet made a final decision on extending a statewide moratorium on evictions. And, in D.C., Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.) says she continues to fight for her Paycheck Recovery Act, that would require the federal government to subsidize benefits and salaries of qualified workers if unemployment hits 7% or higher.

Better federal news might finally be arriving, however, in the form of thousands of new test kits. The state announced it is scheduled in the coming week to receive its first batch of Abbott BinaxNOW antigen rapid tests that can return results in as little as 15 minutes. The first batch will include 149,000 kits, and the state anticipates receiving nearly 2.3 million total tests between now and December.

Phase 3, still, might be as far out of reach as ever for King County. But with more surgical approaches to reopening and new behaviors like wearing a mask when we hang out even with family and friends, fall and winter in Seattle might bring a slow, methodical increase in normalcy.

“The number are what count here,” inslee said Thursday. “We need to knock those numbers down.”

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