Baker County reported a record number of COVID-19 cases last week as the extremely contagious omicron variant continues to spread.

But as has been seen elsewhere in the state and country, the less virulent variant has not resulted in a proportionate increase in hospitalizations and deaths.

As of Monday, Jan. 17, the Oregon Health Authority hadn’t reported any COVID-19-related deaths in Baker County since Dec. 31.

For the seven-day period Jan. 9-15, Baker County reported 176 cases.

That exceeds the previous weekly record of 139 cases from Sept. 12-18, during the local peak of the surge driven by the delta variant.

Case counts dropped off substantially starting in late September.

Baker County didn’t have any days with as many as 20 cases during October, November and December.

But of the first 16 days of January, there were more than 20 cases on seven days, including six straight from Jan. 10-15.

With two weeks left in January, its tally of 289 cases is the third-highest monthly figure, behind September (465) and August (300).

The percentage of positive tests for the week Jan. 9-15 was 26.4%, slightly below the delta peak of 26.5% for the week Sept. 5-11.

The recent rise in cases has led to the postponement of many high school sporting events in Northeastern Oregon, including the La Grande-Baker girls and boys basketball games set for Jan. 11 (rescheduled for Feb. 8) and the Baker boys game at Mac-Hi on Friday, Jan. 14 (rescheduled for Saturday, Jan. 22).

The North Powder School District canceled classes for Tuesday, Jan. 18.

A post on the district’s Facebook page stated: “This week has been a crazy week with contact tracing. Although we have only had a few positive cases at school, after visiting with our school nurse and the local health authorities, we are choosing to close school for Tuesday, January 18th. This has been a difficult decision, but for the safety of our students and staff, we feel this is the best decision. School will resume on Wednesday, January 19th. The high school basketball game that was scheduled for Tuesday will be rescheduled and we will announce that as soon as we have it confirmed.”