The Yakima Health District reported 328 new COVID-19 cases Friday, with three more deaths.
The county has had 22,769 coronavirus cases and 317 deaths since mid-March, according to the health district.
Fifty-six people were hospitalized Friday, with four people intubated. A total of 16,655 people have recovered.
Yakima County had about 1,076 cases per 100,000 people from Dec. 16-29, and a test positivity rate of 45% from Dec. 22-28, according to the state Department of Health.
The state announced a new business reopening plan Tuesday, which sets goals of a 10% decrease in cases and hospitalizations by region over two weeks to move from Phase 1 to Phase 2. Other objectives include an ICU occupancy rate of less than 90% and a test positivity rate of less than 10%.
The metrics will be released by region on Fridays by the Department of Health. In this week’s update, all regions remain in Phase 1 of reopening.
“We know that all people in Washington want to move forward as quickly as possible with respect to COVID-19. However, these metrics show that we are just not ready to do so now,” state Secretary of Health Umair Shah said in a statement. “We have made progress but need to continue to work together to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 across our state.”
Yakima County is in the south central region with Benton, Columbia, Franklin, Kittitas and Walla Walla counties.