Mark Bennett

The surge in COVID-19 cases has arrived in Baker County, but local officials say they’re optimistic that because the new omicron variant is less virulent than earlier strains, there won’t be a repeat of the rapid rise in hospitalizations and deaths that followed previous surges.

“Hopefully that’s the case,” Nancy Staten, director of the Baker County Health Department, said on Friday morning, Jan. 7.

“This variant isn’t as virulent as the delta variant, but if you have underlying health issues there is still that risk,” said Baker County Commissioner Mark Bennett, who has served as the county’s incident commander throughout the pandemic.

“There are still folks that this (omicron variant) will be really, really impacting,” Bennett said on Jan. 7.

Baker County reported 27 cases on Thursday, Jan. 6. That’s the highest one-day total since 27 cases on Sept. 16, during the peak of the surge driven by the delta variant.

There were 17 cases in the county on both Wednesday, Jan. 5, and Tuesday, Jan. 4. The three-day total of 61 cases is the most in that period since 65 cases from Sept. 15-17.

For the first six days of January, Baker County reported 81 cases, almost 80% of the total of 106 cases during December.

Oregon set statewide daily records for total cases on four straight days, including 7,615 on Jan. 6.

But Bennett and Staten both pointed out that statewide, the number of people with COVID who are being treated in hospitals has risen at a much slower pace.

As of Jan. 6, there were 588 people with COVID being treated in hospitals, about half the September 2021 peak.

The Oregon Health Authority (OHA) doesn’t have current statistics, at the county level, on the number of residents admitted to a hospital for treatment of COVID-19.

In a Jan. 6 email to the Herald, Laura Huggins, Foundation, Marketing and Communications coordinator at Saint Alphonsus Medical Center in Baker City, said there hasn’t been “an uptick in omicron in our hospital.”

“To me, hospitalization is the real number we always need to keep our eye one,” Bennett said. “Because it impacts other medical emergencies and situations too.”

Bennett said that in addition to the growing evidence that omicron is less likely to cause severe illness, he’s encouraged because, compared with the significant surge in cases and hospitalizations in December 2020 and January 2021, vaccination rates are much higher.

Hardly any Baker County residents had been vaccinated at that time, as the vaccines became available only late in 2020.

Today, about 55.1% of Baker County residents 18 and older have had at least one dose of a vaccine, according to the OHA.

That’s the fifth-lowest rate among Oregon’s 36 counties.

Bennett acknowledged that omicron is more capable of infecting fully vaccinated people, in what are known as breakthrough cases, as well as reinfecting people who previously contracted a different variant.

But he noted that evidence shows that breakthrough and reinfection cases tend to cause less severe symptoms, and in some cases asymptomatic infections.

“That could be the determining factor in whether we have a big increase in hospitalizations,” Bennett said.

The OHA’s weekly breakthrough case report listed 12 breakthrough cases, out of 29 total cases, in Baker County for the week Dec. 26 through Jan. 1. The breakthrough case rate of 41% is the highest ever in Baker County.

Staten said she expects the number of breakthrough cases will increase this week along with the overall total.

More home testing

Staten said this week’s increase in cases has been spurred in part by a big jump in the number of residents calling the Health Department after taking a home test that had a positive result.

She said about 11 of the 69 cases reported this week were from home tests.

In the past, the county has received just a few calls about positive home tests.

Staten said residents are not required to report the results of home tests, but they can do so if they so choose.

Staten said those cases are deemed “presumptive,” the same as a person who hasn’t had a confirmed lab test but is identified, through contact tracing, as a close contact with someone who did test positive.

Case counts include both those confirmed by lab tests and presumptive cases.

Vaccination clinic planned

The Health Department will have a drive-thru vaccination clinic on Thursday, Jan. 13 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Baker County Fairgrounds, 2600 East St. (north of Campbell Street).

Staten noted that booster shots are now available for everyone 12 and older who had their second dose at least five months ago.

According to OHA data, 41% of Baker County residents 65 and older have had a booster dose of vaccine.

The booster dose rate for other age groups in the county:

• 50 to 64: 22.5%

• 20 to 49: 10.7%

• 18 & 19: 8.2%

• 12 to 17: 1.3%