Washington State Health Officials Say It’s Time For A COVID-19 Transition

OLYMPIA, Wash. – It’s time for a COVID-19 transition, at least according to health officials in Washington State.

Despite a recent up-tick in new cases thanks to the more transmissible BA.2 variant, virus-related hospitalizations and deaths remain low across the state.

And so it’s time to make a transition “away from the initial pandemic response, to learning to live with COVID.”

And State Epidemiologist Dr. Scott Lindquist says that means approaching COVID more like the flu, “We do not count every case of influenza in this state…what is reportable is flu deaths and variants. Not say that COVID is going to be exactly like the flu, but we’ve reached this transition point.”

The new BA.2 variant now makes up over 90 percent of the state’s new cases.