Inslee Press Conference “So Far Away from Success On This”
Aside from a positive report for Yakima County, little good news came out of Gov. Inslee's press conference Thursday.
The one big item that did come out of it was a new requirement for Ag employers to rest their workers and staff if it appears an outbreak begins to occur. This is in response to his visits to Central Washington, and alleged outbreaks among farm workers and others.
Inslee said he is "cautiously pleased" about how the numbers have been doing, COVID case wise. He mentioned some "positive signs" and said the "R naught" number is right at 1. R-Naught refers to the number of persons an infected person spreads COVID to. 1-1 means 1 new infection for every infected person. (R naught spelled phonetically).
He said statewide we "need" to be at a rate of 25 new cases per every 100K of population over a 14 day period. Currently, the entire state averaged together, is at about 110 per 100K. Some counties are higher, some lower. Until we reach 25 per 100K life will not be normal, he indicated.
Inslee also said it will be some time before we can resume "normal activities." He then displayed a series of confusing charts, half of which were never displayed on the screen as the cutaway feature was not working.
He then said, attempting to give perspective, "we have so far to go in this effort."
Around the 17:20 mark, he launched into another diatribe about the need for the Federal Government to continue to the $600 unemployment benefits, This was his only addressing of the business-economic-family impact of COVID during the conference.
Then around the 21:40 mark, he spent time lauding AG Ferguson and his lawsuit against the Trump Administration over the USPS issue.
To watch the press conference for yourself, click on the button below.