GRAYS HARBOR, Wash. — Grays Harbor County Officials want you to know that their ocean beaches are still closed, despite the loosened restrictions on outdoor recreation.
“There is still a ban on non-essential travel in place,” said Karolyn Holden, the county’s public health director.
“From the beginning, I’ve heard, mostly from our coastal communities where we have a big retirement community, and they are fearful of people from other parts of the state where there is a prevalence of disease,” Holden said.
The county has already taken measures to limit access and say that it will continue.
Gov. Jay Inslee extended the statewide stay home, stay health order to May 31, and announced the state would reopen in four phases.
Grays Harbor County is one of 10 counties that Inslee says can apply for earlier re-opening of their community.
Officials in Grays Harbor County say they're in no rush to do that right now.
“We have been extremely fortunate in having identified only 12 cases,” Holden said.
Holden added that their hospitals are prepared to handle new cases of the coronavirus but don’t want to overwhelm their system if visitors came back.
“Our timing was lucky. Our first cases did not occur until right before the restrictions were put into place. Before our local activity could kind of set fire things were being clamped down,” she said.
The Washington State Parks and Recreation Commission announced guidelines on Saturday for how the state’s parks can be utilized during this first phase. It made a note that the ocean beaches are not included and that they’re working with county leaders to determine a timeline.