Spokane Health Office Bob Lutz is rejecting a request from Spokane County to move towards the next reopening phase.
Lutz says
"I, along with the county’s Board of Health, share our community’s desire to move forward, to further open businesses and to bring life closer to normal," Lutz said in a statement. "But, at the same time, we have to show patience, resiliency and mindfulness by remaining steady."
Friday will mark four weeks since Spokane moved to phase 2. Under Washington guidelines, each county must be in each reopening phase for at least three weeks.
The Spokane County Board of Commissioners sent a letter requesting that the Lutz take immediate action to move the county closer to Phase 3 of reopening.
The county is meeting health care system metrics, but not the case frequency and testing metrics used for phase 3 consideration by the state Department of Health.