An 85-year-old Baker County man who died on March 6 at his home was the 11th county resident to die after testing positive for COVID-19, the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported on Thursday, March 11.

The man had underlying medical conditions, according to the OHA.

Initially on Thursday the state agency reported that two Baker County residents had died after testing positive for the virus.

Holly Kerns, a public information officer for Baker County, notified the Baker City Herald that the OHA report was in error. The agency later corrected the mistake, clarifying that one, not two, Baker County residents had died after testing positive.

Four county residents who tested positive have died since Feb. 26.

In addition to the 85-year-old man who died March 6, a 64-year-old woman died on March 7 after testing positive on Feb. 18. She also had underlying conditions.

An 87-year-old woman and an 88-year-old man both died on Feb. 26, two days after testing positive. Both had underlying conditions, according to the OHA.

An increase in cases and in the county’s test positivity rate from Feb. 21 through March 6 resulted in the county moving from the lowest of the state’s four risk levels to the moderate category, the second-lowest, on Friday, March 12.

The county will remain at moderate risk through at least March 25.

The county had 44 new cases during the most recent two-week measuring period.

For the first five days of the current measuring period — March 7-20 — the county has had 12 cases. The county had 20 new cases for the first five days of the previous two-week measuring period.

To drop back to the lowest risk level, the county must have fewer than 30 cases during the measuring period, and a positivity rate below 5%.

Baker County sponsored its third large COVID-19 vaccination clinic on Friday at Baker High School. 

About 700 doses were given there and later Friday at the Health Department.

Even before that clinic, almost one in four of Baker County’s 16,800 residents had received either a first dose (about 14.4%) or both doses (8.8%) of a vaccine.

Another 103 doses of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one dose, had been administered in the county through Thursday, March 11.

Baker County’s vaccination rate of 2,319 per 10,000 residents is the second-highest among Oregon’s 36 counties.

Only Wheeler County, the state’s least populated county with about 1,440 residents, had a higher vaccination rate at 3,268 per 10,000.

Vaccination rates for counties in the region include:

• Union: 1,711 per 10,000

• Wallowa: 2,190 per 10,000

• Grant: 1,602 per 10,000

• Malheur: 1,384 per 10,000

• Umatilla: 1,385 per 10,000

• Harney: 1,982 per 10,000