'We are on the two-yard line': Washington Gov. Jay Inslee rejects reopening state early

Washington Gov. Jay Inslee rejected calls to lift COVID-19 restrictions and reopen the state early on Tuesday, urging residents to "stay the course" and get vaccinated if they have not already done so.

"I have said repeatedly we are going to [reopen] on June 30 or when we hit 70% of people 16 and up initiating vaccinations – whichever happens first. We use age 16 and up as that population was eligible when we made the announcement," Inslee said in an official statement Tuesday. "For those who would advocate changing our strategy, we are on the two-yard line. We are not going to change the game plan now. We are going to see this through."

As of June 12, 67.2% of residents in the state 16 and older have received at least one dose of the vaccine, representing 4.1 million people according to Washington Department of Health (DOH) data. That number is still below the goal Inslee set earlier in May of at least 70% of the population receiving one dose.

Inslee also clarified discrepancies in state versus federal data, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention currently shows the state is above the 70% threshold with 71.7% of the state receiving at least one dose of the vaccine. However, the state is basing reopening off of its own calculations, not the CDC's data which uses different metrics.

"Our state uses data for people age 16 and up; the federal government uses data for ages 18 and up. We use the most recent Census data from 2020; the federal government uses older data," Inslee wrote.

There have been some promising milestones in the fight against the virus: King County, the state's largest county, hit its target 70% vaccination rate on Tuesday, according to local health officials. However, the county's mask mandate, which urged continued use of face coverings indoors, will not lift until June 29 as it takes two weeks for people's immune system to fully respond to the vaccine.

Despite those high rates in some parts of the state, other counties are still recording low vaccination rates, leaving many unprotected and at risk of contracting the novel coronavirus. Stevens, Pend Oreille, Garfield, Asotin, Columbia, Franklin and Skamania counties have less than 30% of their population fully vaccinated against the virus, according DOH data.

The city of Seattle also reached the 70% vaccination threshold last week, becoming the most-vaccinated major U.S. city.

However, state health officials have noted that the state has been experiencing softening demand for vaccines in the past few weeks, a concerning trend. Unvaccinated people ages 45 to 64 currently have a 21 times higher risk for a COVID-19 hospitalization in the state compared to vaccinated people, while unvaccinated people ages 65 and older currently have a 15 times higher risk for hospitalization, according to Secretary of Health Umair Shah.

The push to reopen prior to the June 30 date has come from several state lawmakers, including House Republican Leader J.T. Wilcox and Senate Republican Leader John Braun who issued a joint statement to the governor calling for a June 15 reopening date.

"The time to move our state forward is now. Washingtonians want to return to a sense of normalcy and businesses need more certainty as they attempt to recover," the two lawmakers wrote in their statement.

Hospitality industry leaders from the Washington Hospitality Association also advocated for an earlier reopening, saying that their industry has been one of the most impacted by the pandemic and subsequent restrictions.

“Our industry has been the hardest hit by far over the last 14 months of the pandemic, yet we have not called for reopening until today," said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the Washington Hospitality Association in a news release. "While other states have a plan for moving forward, Washington’s plan only moves in one direction: backward."

West Coast states remain varied in their approach to reopening, with Oregon following a plan similar to Washington's and lifting most restrictions once 70% of the state’s adults have received at least one dose of the vaccine. However, California fully reopened its economy on Tuesday, ending capacity limits and social distancing requirements.