Kimberly Lindsay, Grant County’s public health administrator, during a session of Grant County Court.

As Gov. Kate Brown extended Oregon’s state of emergency due to the fast-spreading COVID-19 omicron variant, Grant County’s top health official weighed in on what the variant’s impact could be on the county.

Kimberly Lindsay, Grant County public health administrator, said in a Dec. 20 press release that data from the United Kingdom and Denmark shows that since the first cases were detected roughly three weeks ago, cases have doubled every two to three days.

In a Dec. 22 phone call, Lindsay noted that a recent Wall Street Journal article clarifies that those who have not had COVID-19 recently and have waning natural immunity or have not had the booster or are unvaccinated might experience the effects of a bad cold. But, she added, people with immune issues or older folks from more vulnerable populations stand to be more seriously impacted.

What is less clear about omicron, she said, is whether it is intrinsically less virulent than earlier versions of the disease. She told the Eagle the new variant is hundreds of times more transmissible than the delta variant, and she said she is hearing that the mutations of the variant are incredibly high.

Given that, Lindsay said it is likely that more Grant County residents would contract the virus and experience severe illness and would likely need to be hospitalized.

With so many variables, though, she said she cannot say if the omicron variant would be worse than the county’s most recent COVID-19 surge in the fall of this year, which saw an increase in infections, hospitalizations and deaths.

She said vaccinated people are less likely to become severely sick, and early research tells health officials that a booster dose further builds antibodies to continue fighting the virus.

Lindsay noted that the Health Department is already seeing cases increase, with 13 new infections reported Monday, Dec. 27, and nine more reported on Tuesday, Dec. 28.

However, she added, those numbers probably don’t provide an entirely clear reflection of the amount of virus in the county, given the uptick in home testing. People who test at home, she noted, don’t always report positive test results to the Health Department.

Lindsay added that her department is making sure it has supplies and staff on hand in the event of a growing surge of new COVID-19 cases, and vaccines will be offered during the evening and on weekends in the third week of January.

She said the Health Department would release more information in the coming weeks.