Staten

Baker County has set a record for new COVID-19 cases in two consecutive weeks, but daily cases dipped a bit over a three-day period ending Sunday, Jan. 23.

It’s too early to say that this constitutes a meaningful trend marking the passage of the peak of the surge caused by the infectious omicron variant, said Nancy Staten, director of the Baker County Health Department.

“We’ll see what happens this week,” Staten said on Monday morning, Jan. 24. “We want to be cautiously optimistic.”

Nationwide, the seven-day average of cases on Friday, Jan. 21, was down 7% from the previous week.

The three-day weekend tally of cases in Oregon was not available by press time on Monday, Jan. 24.

And Staten pointed out that during previous surges, Baker County has tended to lag behind the state in reaching a peak of new infections.

A total of 29 people went to a free testing clinic in Baker City on Saturday, Jan. 22, but those PCR test results won’t be available until later this week, Staten said on Monday, Jan. 24.

The county’s case total for the week Jan. 16-22 was 183. That eclipsed the record set the previous week, Jan. 9-15, with 176 cases.

(Both weeks broke the record of 139 cases set Sept. 12-18.)

Daily case totals exceeded 25 on all but one day from Jan. 11 to Jan. 20, including a one-day record of 55 on Jan. 18, and the second-highest total of 40, on Jan. 20.

The daily counts for Jan. 21, 22 and 23 were 23, nine and nine.

Weekend case totals tend to be artificially low due to delays in reporting.

However, the total of nine cases for Saturday, Jan. 22, was lower than for each of the previous three Saturdays — 29 cases on Jan. 15, 10 on Jan. 8, and 12 on Jan. 1.

Sundays typically have the fewest cases — nine on Jan. 23, four on Jan. 16, six on Jan. 9 and zero on Jan. 2.

Staten said that although a small number of people who have taken home tests that were positive have reported those results to the Health Department, she believes there are county residents who have also tested positive at home but have not reported the result.

She urges people who have symptoms consistent with COVID-19, but who test negative with a home test, still try to be isolated for at least five days. Those tests aren’t as accurate as the lab-processed PCR tests, Staten said.

As for symptoms, she said Health Department workers who do contact tracing and case investigations have found that cold-like symptoms, including a sore throat, headache, congestion and sometimes fever, have been the more common ailments recently.

In general, people are reporting somewhat less severe symptoms than with other variants — consistent with what health experts have found with omicron — but Staten cautioned that omicron can also make people severely, and potentially fatally, sick.

Staten said the record-setting number of new cases this month means the Health Department can’t interview everyone who tested positive.

She said some people decline to talk with Health Department workers.

Staten said case investigators have linked some of the recent cases to holiday gatherings.

They have also noted that more households have had multiple members infected, which she said is to be expected given how contagious omicron is.

The Oregon Health Authority didn’t list any new workplace outbreaks in Baker County as of Jan. 16.

Staten said she hopes that, as statistics in other countries suggest could happen, the omicron surge will “go down almost as fast as it went up.”

But with cases remaining high in Baker County, she urges people to continue to take precautions.

“We want people to have hope,” Staten said. “We know people are tired of wearing masks and social distancing. It’s hard for everyone.”