The end of Covid-19 saga is near. At least in the state of Washington. Washington was one of the first states where Covid-19 outbreak started and it was one of the early states that went into lock downs. It has been almost two years since it all started. These couple years has been crazy globally, added more confusion, and after the first year it seemed like the end would never come. We adapted to the new reality, and stop bothering to ask if it was even possible to go back to the normal. To my surprise this week there were series of news coming out of the state officials that give glimpse of hope. Is it really happening? Have we reached to the end of the tunnel? Just maybe the time to open the new chapter and leave Covid-19 in the history books for good has arrived.
The first news came from King County and City of Seattle officials. On March 1st they are ending vaccine verification policy.
With new COVID-19 cases and hospitalization decreasing, and over 87% of King County residents over age 12 fully vaccinated, King County Executive Dow Constantine announced Public Health – Seattle & King County is lifting the local health order requiring proof of COVID-19 vaccination for entry into indoor recreational settings, or outdoor events. The vaccination verification policy will no longer be in effect as of March 1.
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About time! It has really been a long time. Any good news is a welcome. Winter is ending, spring is almost here. There are going to be many outdoor activities and indoor gatherings in coming months. No longer having an extra layer of steps to take with showing vaccination proofs or getting tested every time when there is a need to attend various events does seem like old normal. Now that there are vaccines available for those who choose, and home test kits available that are easy to use, I hope we can be done with endless and often confusing debates. But most importantly it is great to know hospitalization numbers and covid cases have been decreasing. Let's be done with this, please.
This is not it. The news keeps getting better. Washington State Department of Health announced recently that wearing masks at large outdoor events will no longer be required starting February 18, 2022, which is tomorrow. However, that announcement still has masks as a requirement in public indoor settings. That was a good start. Now only if they could also lift the requirement for wearing masks in indoor settings, that would be amazing. Looks like that is going to happened very soon as well. As soon as the next month. Starting March 21st state of Washington is ending indoor mask mandate.
Gov. Jay Inslee has announced that, beginning March 21, face masks will no longer be required in most indoor settings, including schools and child care facilities. The mask mandate will still be applicable in health care settings such as hospitals, outpatient and dental offices, as well as long-term care and correctional facilities.
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Wow. No vaccine verification. No masks mandate outdoors or indoors. What's happening? It almost seems like they are joking. Washington state has been one of the strict states when comes to vaccine requirements and masks. Seeing these government officials lifting these requirements and saying that there is evidence of significant decline in omicron cases in the states is a great news. I am normally very skeptical about what politicians say. But these are positive changes that I thought would take much longer to happen. Hopefully, things continue changing in this positive direction.
While the state and local officials are lifting these mandates, they are still leaving for businesses to decide what policies to implement regarding the vaccination status verifications and wearing masks. At the same time federal law will still require face masks to be worn in public transportation and school buses.
In the last piece of news from State of Washington, starting today, February 17th, 2022, hospitals will be allowed to resume non-urgent surgeries. Apparently, there was a pause on all non-urgent procedures, surgeries, and operations due to the high number of covid cases in the past months. It sounds like omicron is under control and hospitals are back in business of doing all kinds of surgeries.
Hopefully, this trend will continue and we keeps seeing such positive news from all over the world. Hopefully, there will be no more variants. These two years has been so crazy, it is not that easy to believe that these positive changes are actually happening. They are happening and that is great. There were a lot of lessons to be taken from this global experience, and I can just hope we as a humanity have learnt something and can do better in the future.
How are things in your parts of the world? Do you see changes happening? Are we done with Covid for good? Let me know in the comments.