Inslee officially announces statewide shutdown of restaurants, bars and expanded social gathering limits
— from Governor Jay Inslee’s Office —
Gov. Jay Inslee announced today an emergency proclamation that mandates the immediate two-week closure of all restaurants, bars, and entertainment and recreational facilities, as well as additional limits on large gatherings. The new orders go into effect at midnight tonight and will be in place through March 31.
The announcement comes after the recent spike in numbers of COVID-19 cases in the state and across the country.
“If we are living a normal life, we are not doing our jobs as Washingtonians,” Inslee said. “We cannot do that anymore. We need to make changes, regardless of size. All of us need to do more. We must limit the number of people we come in contact with. This is the new normal.”
Inslee made the announcement in Seattle with King County Executive Dow Constantine and other local and health leaders via streaming and telephone to practice social distancing measures.
Read the rest of the story on the governor’s Medium page.
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Good for Gov. Inslee.
There are hardships from this and it’s something most of us haven’t experienced in our lifetimes so we have to help each other to get through this. This pandemic also coincides with questions a lot of us have on ways to help ourselves and our planet however possible.
What I find fascinating is how much China’s pollution level has gone down since their lockdown and massive cut in fossil fuel use – a clear message that we all can do more by reducing fossil fuel use as a start to our climate and health issues (it would be interesting to do an asthma study at the same time since the correlation between air pollution and health is clear).
I realize the economic system of consumption that we have now is not set up to support people in staying home and using less – and that is part of the shift we will all need to make to survive. At the heart of this is asking ourselves what has ‘value’ and where our own values lie. I see this as an opportunity to rethink, reset, and change directions that need to be changed; that is the up-side of a global and national emergency.