PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) — Governor Jay Inslee announced on Tuesday that 5 counties are moving to Phase 2 of his reopening plan.

Benton, Chelan, Douglas, Franklin and Yakima counties – all currently in modified Phase 1 – are moving to Phase 2.

“We know cases have started to tick back up across the state. None of us are out of the woods, but these counties have made tremendous progress over the last few months,” Inslee said.

This move will put these 5 counties on par with their neighboring counties. It is a relatively modest change, but we feel it's appropriate to align these counties with the rest of the region.

I'm grateful to each of these counties for doing what it takes to drive down the virus.

— Governor Jay Inslee (@GovInslee) October 13, 2020

As of Saturday, the state of Washington had recorded 93,035 confirmed/presumptive cases of COVID-19 since the pandemic began in March. To date, 2190 people have died in Washington from the coronavirus.

Last week, Inslee made 2 announcements regarding the pandemic response. He announced the extension of a moratorium on evictions through Dec. 31 at the same time he announced new grants for business owners.

One week ago, Inslee didn’t move any counties forward or backward in his four-phase COVID-19 reopening plan, but he did say more activities would be allowed throughout the state.

Joining Inslee at the press conference Tuesday will be State Health Officer Kathy Lofy plus Dan McConnon and David Schumacher, both from the Office of Financial Management.