A COVID-19 particle is pictured in this image provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO]

Baker County’s COVID-19 surge continued on Tuesday, April 13 with 14 new cases, the highest one-day total since late December, and the third-most in any day during the pandemic.

Nancy Staten, director of the Baker County Health Department, described the situation as “alarming” during an interview Tuesday morning, before the day’s case total was compiled.

Staten said a large majority of the county’s cases over the past few weeks — including those reported Tuesday — have been traced to parties and other social gatherings.

She said she understands that people, more than a year into a pandemic that has had such dramatic effects on previously normal activities, want to socialize.

“People have COVID fatigue,” Staten said. “People want to gather.”

But if too many residents cease taking precautions — as the recent rise in cases, and their origins, suggests is happening — the effects can be widespread, Staten said.

Besides increasing the risk for vulnerable people to suffer severe health effects — 13 county residents have died after testing positive — Staten pointed out that the surge could push the county into a higher risk level starting April 23, with associated limitations on businesses, particularly restaurants and bars.

“This is a critical time, and we all play a role,” Staten said. “We don’t want to close down our businesses and restaurants.”

Tuesday’s total of 14 cases was the most in a single day since Dec. 28, when the county set a daily record with 25 new cases.

The second-highest daily total was 18 cases on Dec. 3.

There were 14 new cases on Jan. 12.

Between Jan. 16 and March 23 the county never had more than seven new cases in a single day.

But since March 24 the county has had four days with 10 or more cases, including 13 on April 2.

The county’s daily average, which peaked in December at 6.3 per day, dropped to 3.4 per day in January and to 2.5 in February, before rising slightly to 3.1 per day in March.

For the first 13 days of April, the daily average was 5.2 cases.

Vaccinations increase

The surge comes while Baker County continues to inoculate residents against COVID-19.

Staten said the Health Department does not have any evidence of “breakthrough” cases in the county — people who are infected even after they’re fully vaccinated.

Although the Oregon Health Authority (OHA) doesn’t list breakthrough cases by county, a recent report from the agency noted nine such cases in a region that includes Baker, Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa and Malheur counties.

As of Tuesday, 5,146 Baker County residents — 30.6% of the population — had been either partially (1,292, or 7.7%) or fully (3,854, or 22.9%) vaccinated, according to the OHA.

Staten said Oregon’s decision announced Tuesday to stop administering the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, which requires only one dose unlike the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines, won’t have a significant effect on vaccination rates in Baker County.

As of Tuesday, of the 8,521 vaccine doses administered in Baker County, 444 were Johnson & Johnson (about one half of 1%).

Baker County has used primarily the Moderna vaccine — 7,293 of the total doses (almost 86%).

Positive case at Baker Middle School

The Baker School District announced on Tuesday that an “individual” at Baker Middle School had tested positive for COVID-19. The district was notified of the positive test on Monday.

The district’s press release did not note whether the person is a student or employee.

District officials have made that distinction with past cases, but to protect individual privacy they don’t intend to do so in the future, said Lindsey McDowell, the district’s public information and communications coordinator.

Baker Middle School and Baker High School students, who had been attending in-person classes two days per week since Jan. 25, returned to a full four-day weekly schedule starting Monday, April 12.

“It’s disappointing to have a positive COVID-19 case to report following the first day that secondary students in the district returned to full-time, in-person instruction,” Superintendent Mark Witty said in the press release. “We will continue to follow all health protocols in place to keep our community safe and healthy, and we hope that parents and students will help us by staying home when they are ill. These protocols, along with increased vaccinations locally, are the key to a return to normal.”

Students in all grades continue to attend in-person classes four days per week. Students also have the option of taking online classes.

Since July 2020, 14 school district employees and nine students have tested positive. That doesn’t include this week’s case at BMS.

According to both the school district and the Health Department, none of those students or employees was infected at school.

“I think the schools have done a good job of keeping community spread out of our schools,” Staten said. “The protocols that our schools have followed have helped out immensely.”

Potential effects on restaurants, bars

Tyler Brown said the prospect of Baker County moving back to the high risk level is “incredibly frustrating.”

Brown owns Barley Brown’s Brew Pub and Tap House, separate businesses on Main Street in Baker City.

If the county jumps from the current lowest risk level to high risk on April 23, the indoor dining capacity for Brown’s restaurants will drop from 50% to 25%.

The same change in capacity would apply to theaters, indoor fitness centers and gyms, and indoor swimming pools.

Brown believes the state’s COVID-19 restrictions are unfair because they have outsized effects on a relatively narrow business sector.

For grocery and other retail stores, capacity drops from 75% at the lowest risk to 50% at high risk.

Moreover, Brown said that although he has asked Staten many times whether the county’s contact tracing has linked COVID-19 infections to restaurants or bars, she has said no.

Staten, as mentioned earlier in the story, attributed many of the cases to social gatherings.

“Regardless of how people act elsewhere, we’re the only businesses that are most affected when the risk level changes,” Brown said.

Although Brown said it has been beneficial to have indoor dining limits remain the same since Feb. 12, he only has to look into a storage building to recognize the reality.

That’s where workers moved chairs and tables that were removed to comply with occupancy and spacing requirements.

“It’s a constant reminder that even at low risk we’re only partially in business,” Brown said.

COVID-19 vaccinations in Baker County, by age group

As of  Tuesday, April 13, a total of 5,146 Baker County residents — 30.6% of the population — were either partially or fully vaccinated. The breakdown by age:

• 80 and older: 

708

• 75  to 79: 

511

• 70  to 74: 

795

• 65  to 69: 

785

• 60  to 64: 

566

• 50  to 59: 

701

• 40  to 49: 

448

• 30  to 39: 

389

• 20  to 29: 

206 

• 19 and younger: 

37