What Stage Two of Reopening Will Look Like On Vashon
By Chancellor Mentink, Reporter

After a strict lockdown, counties all over Washington are beginning to reopen. Although King County isn’t viable for stage two reopening yet, our community needs to be ready. In stage two, King County citizens can look forward to changes such as stores reopening at 30 percent capacity, some restaurants at half capacity, and continued social distancing and face covering. Many other things will change, but residents need to be careful.
Based on the number of cases. Vashon is relatively safe, and is probably ready for stage two reopening, but residents need to remember that greater King County is not as healthy as Vashon. The rest of King County is in much worse shape, having over 8,000 cases in total, putting Vashon Island at risk. For reference, King County had over 100 cases on June 1 alone. The greater population needs to stay careful to prevent the things that many people in Seattle are experiencing.

Regardless of how excited people get about entering the next stage, we should be careful in order to protect the elderly and those with medical problems. The younger generations need to stay safe for the sake of the elderly, who are disproportionately affected by COVID-19. Entering stage two doesn’t mean Vashon’s population is in the clear, but that the population needs to be more careful than ever, making sure to limit people’s points of contact to keep the pandemic from spreading further. People need to keep their distance, wear masks when outside, and avoid gatherings whenever possible. People shouldn’t relax at this critical time; the community needs to stay alert in order to prevent possibly hundreds of thousands of more lives from being lost.

Although there will be many new exciting things happening during reopening, it’s important to realize that the rest of King County isn’t as safe as Vashon and that residents need to be more cautious than ever.