Editor,

Gov. Jay Inslee declared on emergency on March 23 because of COVID-19. He implemented strict lockdown measures in order to keep the hospitals from getting overrun.

Two months later, the state Department of Health COVID-19 dashboard at https://tinyurl.com/doh-covid reports that the curve has not only flattened, but has gone way down. Hospitalizations due to COVID-19, the most reliable statistic indicating the impact to our health care system, have been dropping for eight straight weeks, now with less than 3 percent of hospitalizations being due to COVID-19.

But, the hospitalizations peaked right when Inslee implemented the lockdown, and with the average hospitalization not occurring until a week or two after infection, clearly the decrease in hospitalizations was not due to Inslee’s stay-home order, but due to the voluntary social distancing measures citizens were already taking.

Now Inslee continues the “emergency” even though hospitals are far from overrun, and in violation of RCW 43.06.210, which states “That the governor must terminate said state of emergency proclamation when order has been restored in the area affected.”

With hospitals having plenty of capacity to treat COVID-19 patients, can anyone argue that order has not been restored?

Inslee also issues mandates that every business must follow, even when they make no sense in some situations, such as 150 people being allowed in Home Depot, but a sole proprietor cleaning gutters is not allowed to operate. Or, mandating that every employee on a construction site must wear a mask, including the employee operating equipment in an enclosed cab.

It’s past time for Inslee to stop micro-managing every aspect of our economy. Instead of mandates, develop guidelines for social distancing, end the emergency, and let the people of Washington state use our common sense and apply them to our unique situations.

David Mahaffy

Coupeville