The Red Rooster Cafe had to close indefinitely Friday, July 30, 2021, after posting that members of its staff had been exposed to COVID-19 and had to quarantine. Oregon Gov. Kate Brown will hold a press conference on Wednesday, Aug. 11, to announce the parameters of a new statewide indoor mask mandate in response to rising case totals. 

ENTERPRISE — Cases of COVID-19 were up in Wallowa County last week — and on Friday reached the highest one-day total to date since the start of the pandemic. And at least two businesses in the county have already been affected by the spike.

The Oregon Health Authority on Friday, July 30, reported 10 new cases of COVID-19 in the county, surpassing the previous one-day record of nine back in February. However, there was just one new reported case over the weekend, despite the state announcing 2,056 new cases in that time. Tuesday’s report from OHA added six more cases in the county among 1,575 in Oregon

The county’s total since the start of the pandemic in early 2020 is at 245.

Brooke Pace, Wallowa Memorial Hospital communications director, encouraged residents to follow the current Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Oregon Health Authority guidelines of masking up.

“The precautionary measures have not changed,” she said. “Get a vaccine, wear a mask indoors, avoid crowded areas.”

Red Rooster Cafe, on Main Street in Enterprise, posted a note Friday afternoon saying the restaurant was going to be closed “until further notice” and that part of its staff had been exposed to COVID and was in quarantine. R&R Drive-In in Joseph was closed Saturday during Chief Joseph Days. A recorded answer to their phone said R&R will be closed until Thursday, Aug. 5 because of coronavirus.

Additionally, the Josephy Center for Arts and Culture in Joseph canceled last Friday night’s opening reception for “Instance in Time,” which was set to kick off an art display by Rick McEwan and Adele Buttolph. The gallery is still open, an email from the Josephy Center said.

Throughout the pandemic, Wallowa County has been one of the locations with a relatively low number of cases, due in part to its sparsely populated nature with roughly 7,000 people living in the county.

Even with the number of overall cases still below the state average — less than 3.5% of the county’s population has tested positive, compared to more than 5% of the state — the number of recent cases has caused that total to swell. The county had 196 total cases at the start of July, and didn’t have its 200th case reported until July 19.

Since that day, though, 39 more cases have been reported — a 19.5% increase in total cases close to two weeks.

Health officials have pointed to the Delta variant as part of the reason for a statewide increase — Oregon reported more than 1,000 new cases in three days during a last four-day stretch last week, including 1,076 on Friday. Earlier last week, officials said they believed the Delta variant — which they have said is much more transmissible — is responsible for about 80% of new cases.

All four northeast Oregon counties, in fact, are seeing a rise, with the biggest of the spikes being in Umatilla County. It has had more than 100 new cases a day in recent days, Friday reported 82 cases and had another 112 over the weekend. Both Baker and Union counties had 22 cases on Friday. Union County had 41 more over the weekend, but Baker County added just nine.

Jackson County had the highest total in Oregon Friday with 188 new cases, and 132 more over the weekend. Multnomah County reported 340 over the weekend.

In Wallowa County, 48.6% of the entire population has been vaccinated, and 58.3% of those 18 and older have received a shot of a COVID-19 vaccine.

Those who statistically are more susceptible to hospitalization or death — the 60 and older population — have made up the majority of those getting vaccinated in the county. As of Friday, OHA data showed that age group in Wallowa County has accounted for 57.4% of the county’s vaccine total, despite being just 41.4% of the population. In all, just over two-thirds of that age bracket — 67.5%, or 1,998 people out of 2,962 — have received a COVID-19 vaccine.