Big announcements at the top of tonight’s roundup:

MORE REOPENING, MORE VACCINATION ELIGIBILITY: Two big headlines from Gov. Inslee‘s midafternoon briefing (video here) – both involving phases:

*Reopening moves to the newly defined Phase 3 on March 22nd. Here’s how the governor’s announcement explains it (pending full details next week):

Sports guidance will change in Phase 3 to allow in-person spectators at events for the first time in a year. Spectators will be allowed to attend outdoor venues with permanent seating with capacity capped at 25%. The change affects both professional and high school sports, as well as motorsports, rodeos, and other outdoor spectator events. Social distancing and facial covering are still required.

The new phase also allows for up to 400 people maximum to attend outdoor activities, as well as events in indoor facilities — so long as 400 people does not exceed 50% capacity for the location, and physical distancing and masking protocols are enforced. Larger venue events are capped at 25% occupancy, or up to 9,000 people, whichever is less, and must follow spectator guidelines.

Additionally, Phase 3 will allow up to 50% occupancy or 400 people maximum, whichever is lower, for all indoor spaces. This applies to all industries and indoor activities currently allowed; restaurants, gyms and fitness centers and movie theaters, among others, may all increase their capacity. A full list of industry-level changes for the new phase will be released next week.

*Vaccination eligibility opens to everyone in Phase 1B, Tier 2 – including “workers in agriculture, food processing, grocery stores, public transit, firefighters and law enforcement” and “people over the age of 16 who are pregnant or have a disability that puts them at high-risk.”

PRESIDENT’S ANNOUNCEMENT: President Biden spoke to the nation this evening (here’s the video), and said he’s telling states that vaccination eligibility has to open to all adults in the U.S. by May 1st. How’s that going to happen? This White House-issued fact sheet has the detailed plan.

NEWEST KING COUNTY NUMBERS: From the Public Health daily-summary dashboard, here are today’s cumulative totals:

*83,653 people have tested positive, 182 more than yesterday’s total

*1,429 people have died, unchanged from yesterday’s total

*5,159 people have been hospitalized, 3 more than yesterday’s total

*925,061 people have been tested, 562 more than yesterday’s total

One week ago, the four totals we track were 82,716/1,411/5,113/912,028.

STATEWIDE NUMBERS: Find them, county by county, on the state Department of Health page.

WORLDWIDE NUMBERS: 118.5 million cases worldwide, 29.2 million of them in the U.S. See the nation-by-nation breakout here.

ANOTHER VARIANT; The one from Brazil has turned up here, Public Health says.

VACCINATION UPDATE: King County’s status report says 76 percent of the people eligible in the county have had at least one dose.

SEEKING VACCINE? If you’re eligible now, here are places to look:
*65+ Seattle residents are eligible for the city-run West Seattle and Rainier Beach sites and Lumen Field Event Center hub – go here
*ADDED: The mayor’s office says WS appointments are available in the days ahead for ANYONE now eligible, not just 65+ – register here
*Your health-care provider (particularly bigger ones like UW Medicine, CHI Franciscan, Swedish, Kaiser Permanente, etc.)
*covidwa.com (volunteer-run aggregator)
*Pharmacy chains big and small – Safeway, Rite Aid, QFC, Pharmaca, Costco
*Sea Mar clinics

NEED FOOD? All welcome at the weekly distribution of food boxes 2-5 pm tomorrow at Food Lifeline (815 S. 96th).

GOT PHOTOS/TIPS? 206-293-6302, text or voice, or westseattleblog@gmail.com – thank you!

2:37 PM: The governor says on March 22nd, every county in Washington will move into Phase 3 – which means 50 percent restaurants, fitness, movie theaters, more. Click above to listen. We’ll add more as it goes.

2:41 PM: He also says sports guidance is changing – so sports venues “with permanent outdoor seating” will be open up to 25 percent capacity – that means, for example, he says up to 9,000 fans when the Mariners open their season. High-school sports is included too. He says youth sports and summer camps are being evaluated as well.

He has vaccination news too – with more open appointments, he says, the next tier of eligibility will kick in March 17th, sooner than previously expected – “everyone in tier 2 will be eligible.” That’s food processing. grocery stores, law enforcement, firefighters, pregnant people, transit, farmworkers, and those with disabilities that put them at higher risk.

But even with all this, he says, “we gotta understand, we’re still in a fight,” so don’t drop your safety precautions. “If we do this, we (should) have a tremendous summer.”

2:47 PM: On to Q&A. Yes, the governor’s office got Seattle/King County signoff on the stadium-reopening plan. … As for youth sports, March 18th is the date they’ll open to some spectators “so more parents and loved ones can watch kids play sports,” said Inslee staffer Nick Streuli. … What about the variants? The governor says they’ll be assessing stats like hospitalizations, county by county, to see if anyone needs to regress to an earlier phase but if people keep up masks and distancing, he’s optimistic that won’t be necessary. Today’s announcement also again changes the metrics they’re watching to assess reopening readiness – see below:

3:03 PM: Here are the details. Counties will be evaluated individually every three weeks, so the next evaluation for reopening will be April 12th. The full industry-by-industry changes will be published next week.

3:17 PM: The briefing is over – the video window above should take you to archived video soon. Meantime. the announcements have started coming in – Mariners expect fans for their April 1st home opener; Sounders FC says it’s hoping to have fans at Lumen Field for its April 16th home opener.

5:59 PM: The governor has issued one correction – the vaccine eligibility is going to Tier 2 *of Phase 1B*.