Vehicles lined up Monday morning, Dec. 13, at the Baker County Fairgrounds for a drive-thru COVID-19 vaccination clinic.

As winter weather finally arrived this week in Baker City, more than 300 people received COVID-19 vaccine doses without leaving the welcome warmth of their cars.

During a three-day drive-thru vaccination clinic at the Fairgrounds, a team that works for the Federal Emergency Management Agency administered 336 doses, said Nancy Staten, director of the Baker County Health Department.

“I really think that is a good number for our county,” Staten said on Wednesday, Dec. 15.

The vast majority of those doses — 307 — were booster doses, Staten said.

The traveling team also conducted one-day clinics on Monday, Dec. 13 in Halfway, where 43 doses were given, and on Tuesday, Dec. 14 in Huntington, where 12 people were vaccinated.

In addition to the drive-thru clinics, vaccine doses were given at the Health Department and at some other medical providers, Staten said.

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) reported that 144 doses were given in Baker County on Sunday, and 186 on Monday.

The two-day total of 330 doses is the highest two-day total since early April, when 634 doses were administered on April 9, the last of the Health Department’s several major clinics at Baker High School last winter and spring.

At the drive-thru clinic

On Monday morning, Dec. 13, Becky and Bruce Litke were among those who took advantage of the opportunity for inoculation from the comfort of their car.

The couple both got their booster dose of the Moderna vaccine.

“We’re elderly, we just want to stay healthy and we’ve been around a lot of people we knew who became sick that didn’t get their shots, and died,” Becky Litke said. “Several people. And so, we’re just not ready to die yet. We would have gotten our booster earlier, but we didn’t get our last shot until the end of March and then we got our flu shot last month, so we waited 30 days until after we got our flu shot to get this one. We’re good.”

Macy Eisland, who was with two friends who declined to comment, said they each had a booster shot.

“We’re from Portland and our friend has property out in Sumpter and so we were just in town,” Eisland said. “We were like, it was going to take at least three hours and two weeks waiting time in Portland to get it so we were like, we’ll just drive through here. Very painless.”

COVID-19 case trends

For the first 14 days of December, Baker County reported 49 cases, an average of 3.5 cases per day.

That would be the lowest monthly rate since July, when the daily average was 2.9.

36th death reported in county

The OHA reported on Wednesday, Dec. 15 that a 71-year-old man from Baker County who tested positive for COVID-19 on Nov. 13 died Dec. 10 at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Nampa, Idaho.

The presence of underlying conditions had not been confirmed.

It was the county’s third COVID-19-related death during December.

Vaccination percentages

Baker County continues to have the fifth-lowest vaccination rate among Oregon’s 36 counties, with 54.7% of residents 18 and older having had at least one dose.

Baker County’s breakdown by age group:

• 65 and older: 65.4% have had two doses, and 37% have had a booster dose.

The comparable percentages statewide are 82.5% and 49.8% (booster).

• 50 to 64: 49.5% have had two doses, and 18.2% have had a booster dose.

The comparable percentages statewide are 79.1% and 27.9% (booster).

• 20 to 49: 39.4% have had two doses, and 8.2% have had a booster dose.

The comparable percentages statewide are 76.9% and 16.8% (booster).

• 18 to 19: 44.9% have had two doses, and 4.8% have had a booster dose.

The comparable percentages statewide are 65.6% and 5.1% (booster).

• 12 to 17: 25.8% have had two doses, and 0.7% have had a booster dose.

The comparable percentages statewide are 65.3% and 1.1% (booster).

• 5 to 11: 8.4% (not eligible for boosters).

The comparable percentage statewide is 26.3%.

Vaccination rate by ZIP code

The Sumpter area has the highest vaccination rate in Baker County at 60.6% of residents 18 and older — 171 of 282 — having had at least one dose, according to OHA.

The area with the lowest vaccination rate is Oxbow, at the far eastern edge of the county, where 33 of 216 residents 18 and older have had at least one dose, a rate of 15.3%.

A majority of the county’s residents live in the 97814 ZIP code, which includes Baker City, parts of Baker Valley and the Keating and Medical Springs areas.

The vaccination rate is 49.3% — 6,089 of 12,348 residents 18 and older having had at least one dose.

Other areas:

• 97834, Halfway/Pine Valley: 461 of 904, 51%

• 97907, Huntington: 220 of 501, 43.9%

• 97833, Haines: 405 of 740, 54.7%

• 97870, Richland/Eagle Valley: 271 of 798, 34%

• 97905, Durkee: 45 of 85, 52.9%

• 97819 and 97837, Bridgeport/Hereford: 24 of 77, 31.2%

• 97884, Unity: 59 of 129, 45.7%