WASHINGTON: Online form available to clarify essential business status

For Washington businesses still unclear about whether they’re essential and thus allowed to continue operating during Governor Inslee’s Stay Home, Stay Healthy Order, the state has created a simple online form to request clarification or ask to be added to the list of essential businesses. The order, which closed non-essential businesses in Washington for two weeks, went into effect at midnight March 25, 2020, to slow the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus). The order and a list of “Essential Critical Infrastructure Workers” define what businesses and which employees can stay active in the next two weeks. The news release announcing the online form also emphatically stated that “no one needs to be registered on any list, and no one needs a letter or pass of any kind to continue moving about, conducting essential business and activities.”