Tacoma grapples with rollback to Phase 2 of reopening

We learned yesterday that three counties in Washington have been moved back to Phase 2 of the state's reopening plan. Among them, our neighbors to the south in Pierce County have too many Covid cases at the moment and too many people in hospitals.

Victoria Woodards is the mayor of Tacoma. She spoke with KUOW’s Kim Malcolm about the impact this will have on her city, and her reaction to yesterday's announcement from the governor.

Certainly, I am feeling the pain of my community, the disappointment for both our community and our local businesses. I understand the decision is based on data, and I want to just remind us that as difficult as it is, we have the power to change the outcomes for our community before the next evaluation.

I know that you and other leaders in Pierce County sent a letter to Governor Inslee last week. You were asking the state to hold off on looking at the metrics until early May. Is there a reason why you were asking for that exemption?

As I understand it from our health department, we're not having outbreaks. There aren’t pockets of things happening that we can immediately go to, focus on, and change. What we're having is an outbreak of cases, and the cases are all over the place. There are some in schools, but they're not causing outbreaks in schools. They're happening all over, so it's hard to pinpoint.

Right now, we're really focused on the messaging. We've been spending, as a country, a lot of energy around "get your vaccine." But I know even when I got my vaccine, I felt better. I felt like I can do things now, but the reality is that Covid is still alive and well.

We are doing some counterbalance. We're still reminding people that even with the vaccine, not everybody's vaccinated, and that Covid still exists. We’re really trying to get the message out: wear your mask, physically distance, continue to be diligent in the things that you've done that got us to this point.

This is hard news for the community, for local businesses. Was there one particular business that when you got the word, your mind just instantly flashed to them?

I will tell you that on Monday, I was out picking up my lunch at a restaurant that had outdoor seating that was full to capacity. I was talking with the gentleman there. I felt bad in that moment for that restaurant.

Some of our restaurants, it's a sign of life for people. The few times I've been out, you hear the conversation and you feel the energy, and it feels like some semblance of normal again. I feel bad for all of our restaurants and small businesses who are affected, and for the employees who have now been able to come back to work and may not be able to continue to work.

Some restaurants have made the calculation over the past year that if they get to open up at 25% indoor capacity they cannot carry their businesses — they may just have to close. I know that the county is considering some aid for small businesses and organizations. Is that going to be enough for these folks who are teetering on the brink of closure?

I don't know if it's going to be enough. We just rolled out our second phase of resiliency grants, which are up to $10,000 for micro businesses with less than five employees. We're going to partner with the county, and we're going to continue to look at ways that we can support small businesses.

I know I've seen a lot of businesses close in Tacoma because of Covid. I hope that we can continue to do everything that we can to support those businesses to stay open. I know I will be talking to my council. We'll be trying to find other ways that we can be supportive.

The best thing we can do as a community is to mask up, socially distance, and follow the state guidelines so that we can slow the spread of Covid, and move back into Phase 3, and then be diligent enough to keep doing what we need to do so that we can stay in Phase 3 and move beyond.

The state will be looking at those numbers again in three weeks. How confident are you that you're going to be able to hit the mark?

I'm an optimist. I live by hoping that we will do everything we can as a community to get those numbers back in line, because we have an uptick in cases and we have an uptick in hospital stays. We've got to do our part to stay healthy.

Listen to the interview by clicking the play button above.