We’ve made it, or have we?

We are six weeks away from the ok for the state – and thus Skagit County – reopening to social and economic activity, just like in the old days. Fifteen months after the coronavirus pandemic shut the country down, Gov. Jay Inslee will, at the start of the July 4th weekend, end the coronavirus public health metric tracking that counties have navigated toward Inslee’s Roadmap to Recovery.

Twenty-two of 39 counties, 56.4%, are reporting more than 200 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 residents in the last two-week period, and 34 counties, 87%, had more than 100 cases per 100,000 people, and many, like Skagit County, are seeing new hospitalizations daily, on average, also above the state’s metric. The rate of new infections and hospitalizations are falling slowly, but those are not the data the governor or public health staffs are focused on. Their eyes are tracking the increasing numbers of residents getting vaccinated.

The race – voluntarily entered into by the state’s population – is to push, pull and incentivize 70% or more Washingtonians over the age of 16 to initiate vaccination. If the 70% figure is reached before June 30, full reopening will be pushed up. That is the carrot Inslee and his staff are dangling in front of us. They point to the six million-plus doses of vaccine administered to date and to the 56% of Washingtonians who have initiated vaccination. The trick is to keep people headed for vaccine appointments.

In Skagit County, elected and public health officials are championing vaccination. Skagit Public Health’s vaccine clinic is open four days weekly, Wednesday-Saturday, with no appointment needed. Medical clinics and pharmacies have the vaccine. Public Health plans to bring the vaccine to school districts to reach teenagers. The Washington State Department of Health (DOH) has expanded COVID-19 vaccine eligibility to everyone 12 and older for the Pfizer vaccine,

The reward of being fully vaccinated is being pushed on the federal level as well, with the Center for Disease Control – and state and local public health staffs promoting – fully vaccinated people dropping mask wearing, both outside and inside. Not wearing masks is probably the one thing the general public generally agrees on, though the cautious have concerns that the incautious do not.

The governor pointed out that his May 13 announcement does not mean that Washington’s state of emergency will lift June 30. Nor does it guarantee a full reopening. If infections rise, with complications putting people in ICU beds so that statewide ICU capacity reaches 90%, Inslee will again roll back social and economic activity.

In the old days, everybody got vaccinated. In these new days everybody needs to get vaccinated.