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Local businesses to remain in phase two for foreseeable future

Governor Inslee announced there will no longer be the threat of being kicked back to phase one. But any idea of a phase three is still weeks out.

SPOKANE, Wash. — Washington Governor Jay Inslee announced Thursday afternoon that the entire state will remain frozen in phase two of its reopening plan for at least several more weeks.

Before this announcement, the plan was that every two weeks the state would publish updates on four key data points for each region. If a region met benchmarks for at least three of them, they could either advance to or stay in phase two. If not, they'd either stay in or be booted back to phase one.

But now Governor Inslee is putting a stop to all that. No more data is being published, and there will be no more moving between phases.

For local businesses, that's in part good news. It means more stability as there's no more threat of moving back to phase one. But stability isn't quite progress.

"Like I said when we opened at 25 percent, it's a step in the right direction, but at 25 percent we're still not bringing out full staff back," said Derek Baziotis, who owns Bene's in Cheney and is the Spokane Chair of the Washington Hospitality Association.

Governor Inslee said the reason for the change in plan is that the current protocols are working: the huge spike we saw in the early winter months has been effectively suppressed, and so we no longer need such a dramatic contingency plan.

"Given that unprecedented level that we had in December, we had to design our reopening plan so that it was very sensitive to the potential that COVID would come springing back," said Inslee during the announcement. "But under our current data trends, and the progress we've made to knock down this third wave, they've told us that we don't really need this hair trigger circuit-breaker, if you will."

To some restaurant owners, this comes with a feeling of vindication.

"It kind of illustrates exactly the point that we were making from the beginning," said Baziotis.

Baziotis says restaurants have always been relatively safe, and is hopeful customers will start believing that too and come in larger numbers.

"Governor Inslee said that it was safe for us to be open at 25 percent," he said. "That means that it is safe to dine in."

As for that elusive phase three, Inslee said Thursday they're working on figuring out what it might look like, and may have an announcement in several weeks. Until then, the current level of restrictions will stay as is.

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