Gov. Jay Inslee is optimistic regarding the state’s pandemic status in the near future due to COVID-19 cases starting to decline in parts of Washington.

Case numbers have been decreasing in most Western Washington counties over the past week. King County’s seven-day daily average has dropped 29% in the one week ending on January 27, while hospitalizations dropped by 20%.

During a Thursday press conference, Gov. Inslee said, “We are hopeful that we will see a plateauing and soon, hopefully, a decline of these cases across the state of Washington. The latest modeling suggests that may have already occurred in Western Washington.”

Inslee went on to say, “I think in the relatively near term, we may be in a place to have a much more normal endemic approach to what will be with us for a long period of time, and I’m looking forward to that day.”

Supporting Inslee’s statements is the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation which has predicted that “the era of major restrictions is coming to an end.”