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On May 4, Governor Inslee put the phased COVID restriction rules on pause for 2 weeks while the state reviews the COVID infection rates. King, Snohomish and several other counties that, under the administration’s rules, should have rolled back to Phase 2, were held in Phase 3.
This has prompted criticism from both Democrat and Republican lawmakers from the three counties that are currently in Phase 2 who argue that, given the infection rates in those three counties, they should move forward to Phase 3 immediately.
Lawmakers wrote to the Governor on May 6, expressing their frustration and threatening to call for a special session to “weigh legislative options”. The letter indicates that lawmakers from Pierce, Cowlitz and Whitman counties are not being treated fairly and the rules are not being applied consistently.
FILE - In this Dec. 14, 2020, file photo, a vial of the Pfizer vaccine for COVID-19 sits on a table at Hartford Hospital in Hartford, Conn. Many parents and educators are excited over the news that the Food and Drug Administration is expected to authorize Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine soon for youngsters ages 12 to 15. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File) Photo: Associated Press
By The Associated Press undefined
NEW YORK Drugmaker Pfizer has begun the process to earn full U.S. regulatory approval for its COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 16 and older.
That gives Pfizer and German partner BioNTech a shot at winning the first full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Perhaps it s a surprise, but then again, given one failed plan, and another that has no end in sight, maybe not.
According to officials, including those from the Washington Hospitality Association (WHA), Washington is one of only 2 states in the U.S. who do NOT have an official on-the-calendar re-open date from COVID-19.
MyNorthwest.com reports the WHA has just sent a letter to Gov. Inslee (signed by thousands of business owners and workers in the hotel, restaurant, bar and related industries) demanding he come up with basically a Phase 4 to his latest reopen plan.
They also want him to set a firm official date. Since the latter stages of his miserably failed Safe Start Plan, and now his Healthy Washington respin, that s something he s refused to do. Even legislative pressure from GOP officials did not make him budge.
Washington is one of two states without a plan or date to fully reopen
A sign indicates the customer limit at a coffee shop in Seattle. (MyNorthwest photo)
There is a petition, started by the Washington Hospitality Association, asking Governor Jay Inslee to put a plan in place to fully reopen the state and to actually set a date.
“It’s now time,” said Anthony Anton, president and CEO of the association. “We really are excited to have a date that makes sense, that aligns with all the things we’ve been talking about are important, and get our economy going again. And while we were very appreciative that the governor on Tuesday didn’t roll us backwards, a lot of his quotes indicated we don’t have a plan to move forward.”
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HEREâS WHAT ELSE IS HAPPENING:
TOPEKA, Kan. â Kansas has requested less than 9% of its federal allocation of COVID-19 vaccine doses for this week, as Republican state lawmakers try to revive proposals to ban government vaccine passports and restore limits on tracing the close contacts of people exposed to the virus.
Democratic Gov. Laura Kellyâs office said Thursday that the state asked for fewer than 14,000 vaccine doses for the week, out of a federal allotment of almost 162,000. While the state sought its full allotment of 6,400 doses of a one-shot vaccine made by Johnson & Johnson, it requested only 7,510 doses of its allocation of 155,540 doses of two-shot vaccines manufactured by Pfizer