News Flash

Cowlitz County is currently in Phase 1 of Governor Inslee’s “Safe Start” plan to re-open Washington’s
economy as of May 5, 2020. Clark County was recently deemed eligible to apply for a variance to advance
to Phase 2.

“For the past 14 days, Cowlitz County has been well below the 10 per 100,000 positive cases over the last
two weeks, established as partial criteria for advancement to Phase 2” said Dr. Steven Krager, Cowlitz
County Health Officer. There has only been one known case in the last 11 days. Based on this low incidence
and based on the relatively small differences between Phase 1 and Phase 2, health officials believe that
Cowlitz County should be eligible to move to Phase 2. The application for variance is currently underway
for consideration by the state.

While maintaining social distancing and common sense, Cowlitz County resident can safely emerge from
this pandemic, while continuing to protect high-risk, vulnerable citizens. “We have done a great job as a
community already and the Incident Management Team would like to encourage citizens to continue their
vigilance” said IMT spokesman Ralph Herrera. Currently there are no deaths and the number of current
cases stands at 69. Of those cases, 28 have already recovered (For Washington COVID-19 reporting, a
patient is considered ‘recovered’ if: 28-days after symptoms began or a specimen was collected, they are
still alive and not hospitalized). The remaining 41 cases are active. There have been 1,821 negative test
results.

On the Governor’s website, there is individual guidance for further clarification on each category found at
https://www.governor.wa.gov/news-media/news/news-release-archive. If you have questions about if your
business is essential or if you want to seek further inquiries about essential business you can use the State
of Washington site at https://coronavirus.wa.gov/what-you-need-know/whats-open-and-closed/essentialbusiness. Cowlitz County Health and Human Services and the Incident Management Team will continue to
provide local updates on the Cowlitz COVID-19 coronavirus webpage at www.cowlitzcovid19.com

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Previous Press Releases: www.cowlitzcovid19.com