The number of COVID-19 cases in Baker County has dropped for the third straight week, and reached the lowest weekly total since late July.

The county’s total of 48 cases from Oct. 3-9 is a decline of 65% from the record-setting total of 139 cases from Sept. 12-18.

Weekly totals, measured from Sunday through Saturday, then dipped to 86 from Sept. 19-25 and to 69 from Sept. 26-Oct. 2.

The tally of 48 cases from Oct. 3-9 was the county’s lowest weekly total in more than two months.

There were six cases from July 18-24.

But in the last week of July, as the much more contagious delta variant began to spread, the county had 68 new cases.

The trend continued during August, with a then-record 300 new cases during the month.

September eclipsed that, with 465 new cases, an average of 15.5 cases per day.

For the first 10 days of October, the county has had 59 total cases, a daily average of 5.9.

Fewer COVID-19 tests have been given in Baker County over the past few weeks, which has kept the county’s test positivity rate from declining as much as the case totals.

The number of weekly tests has dropped from 580 from Sept. 12-18 to 360 from Sept. 25-Oct. 2.

The total for the most recent week, Oct. 3-9, is 261 tests, but that is a preliminary number that’s likely to increase slightly, as there tends to be a lag of several days for some test results.

The county’s test positivity rate has dropped from 26.5% from Sept. 5-11, to 19.2% from Sept. 26-Oct. 2.

The preliminary rate for Oct. 3-9 is 19.9%.

Vaccination rate

Baker County’s vaccination rate is the sixth-lowest among Oregon’s 36 counties, with 52.1% of residents 18 and older vaccinated.

The statewide average is 76%.

Baker County’s seven-day running average of vaccine doses administered per day has dropped from 29 on Sept. 29 to 18 as of Oct. 10.