Wallowa Memorial Hospital is shown in a file photo. The hospital has earned recognition for excellence among rural hospitals for outcomes and patient perspectives. The awards, compiled by the Chartis Center for Rural Health, were announced on Monday, Nov. 27, 2023.

ENTERPRISE — After hovering close to it for several weeks, a mark was reached in Region 9 hospitals that had not been seen in several months.

Zero.

As in no COVID-19 hospitalizations in the six counties that make up Region 9, including Wallowa County.

The Oregon Health Authority’s graph that shows daily hospitalizations across the state on Friday, April 8, showed none in the combined region of Morrow, Umatilla, Union, Wallowa, Baker and Malheur counties. It is the first time there hasn’t been a hospitalization tabbed by the OHA in the region since July 8, 2021, just before the start of the delta spike.

The number has floated near zero for at least two weeks, dropping as low as one on four occasions and fluttering between one and four since March 15. The day before, on March 14, was the last time there were five or more in the region.

Case counts, both regionally and statewide, had been on the decrease in recent weeks, as have hospitalizations, though there has been a slight uptick in cases in the last week. The Friday, April 8 update showed there were 95 statewide COVID hospitalizations, a far cry from the peak of close to 1,200 during the delta spike last summer.

Regionally, there were two major jumps in that nine-month period. During the delta spike, the peak was 43 on Oct. 7, one of four consecutive days the number of cases reached at least 40. The number dropped to as low as three on Dec. 19, then jumped again when the omicron variant arrived. There another four-day stretch of at least 40 cases, with the peak being 45 on Feb. 4 — the highest total of the pandemic.

Statewide, the pandemic has resulted in 706,687 cases of COVID-19, and 7,296 deaths, as of Friday, April 8. In Wallowa County, there have been 1,251 cases and 16 deaths. The last reported case was on March 25. Just 19 cases were reported in March.