Inslee To End All COVID Emergency Orders By Late October
OLYMPIA, WA — Washington's COVID-19 state of emergency will end next month, more than two-and-a-half years after Gov. Jay Inslee's initial declaration, removing all remaining proclamations and emergency orders related to the pandemic, the governor announced Thursday.
Washington confirmed the nation's first known infection in January 2020 and reported the first deaths linked to the virus at the end of February, on the same day Inslee declared a state of emergency. Widespread school closures and restrictions began in mid-March, followed by "stay at home" orders later in the month. Businesses reopened at full capacity in June 2021, and most indoor masking requirements ended this March.
In a news release Thursday, Inslee highlighted Washington's relatively low death rates, along with better tools available, including effective vaccines and therapeutic treatments. The governor's office noted that COVID-19 remains one of the deadliest infectious viruses in the U.S., killing 300 people across the nation each day and averaging 10 in Washington state.
"We’ve come a long way the past two years in developing the tools that allow us to adapt and live with COVID-19," Inslee said Thursday. “Ending this order does not mean we take it less seriously or will lose focus on how this virus has changed the way we live. We will continue our commitments to the public’s well-being, but simply through different tools that are now more appropriate for the era we’ve entered."
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