Governor orders restaurants, bars and entertainment facilities statewide to close

All bars, restaurants, entertainment and recreational facilities statewide must shut down, Washington governor Jay Inslee announced on March 15, as statewide confirmed COVID-19 cases climbed to 769 and the death toll reached 42. That’s an increase of 127 cases and two deaths from the day before. Additionally, the governor prohibited all gatherings of more than 50 people.

Inslee said at a March 16 press conference that he planned to sign the order later in the day and that it would last for two weeks, but could be extended.

“The reason is quite clear. We represent about two percent of the population of the United States but we represent over 20 percent of the infections,” Inslee said. By March 16, the country had 4,074 confirmed cases spread throughout all states but West Virginia.

In addition to restaurants and bars, Inslee’s order applies to food courts, coffee shops, donut shops, ice cream parlors, wine and beer tasting venues, breweries, distilleries, beauty salons, barbershops and nail salons, tattoo shops, theaters, bowling alleys, gyms, fitness centers, nontrivial cardamoms, museums, art galleries, youth sports and youth clubs.

Restaurants will still be allowed to provide takeout and delivery. Sit-down food services at colleges will be banned, but they can provide grab-and-go dining. The order does not apply to grocery stores and pharmacies.

At the beginning of the outbreak, Washington state health department encouraged people to take the first few steps in a 13-step social distancing strategy to slow the virus. Those steps included frequent hand washing and staying home when sick. Now, five weeks later, the only remaining steps are ordering closure of businesses that are still open, preventing non-emergency travel outside the home and cordoning off areas to stop the spread of infection.

These actions are all aimed at slowing the spread of the disease to limit the number of people who need hospital care at any one time.

Since the disease spreads so fast, health officials say actions need to be taken before they appear necessary. “We know there is about a two-week time lag between the time someone becomes sick and when they need hospital care, and waiting for the hospital system to become overloaded is not an option,” said Dr. Jeff Duchin, public health officer for Public Health – Seattle & King County.

At the press conference, Inslee said that the local hospital system would have “ a real strain” if the newest social distancing measures are not successful. Whatcom County health officials didn’t immediately respond to a request for information on the state of the local health care system.

The governor recognized that this order will impose enormous economic and social hardship on many people, including a large chunk of the state’s lower paid workers, and said that in the days to come the state government would do “everything we can to minimize and help mitigate those challenges.”

“But today know we are doing this for a simple reason: to safe lives of our loved ones in Washington,” he said. “I want to reiterate here: hours count. It’s not that weeks count; hours count.”