ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported improving COVID-19 hospital numbers again Thursday, but they also released a statement after being called out by Missouri Governor Mike Parson.
On Thursday, the task force reported a seven-day average of 47 COVID-19 admissions per day, the first time the number has dipped below 50 since Oct. 23, 2020, and the lowest since Oct. 21, 2020.
Hospitalizations continued to decline as well, with the total number of hospitalizations decreasing from 382 to 367, and the seven-day average for hospitalizations went from 409 to 400.
The task force said staffed bed hospital capacity and ICU capacity are both at 82% across task force hospitals.
In the most recent briefing, Dr. Alex Garza, the incident commander of the task force, called recent improvements "really good news."
In Jefferson City Thursday, Gov. Parson also spent a considerable portion of his Thursday briefing criticizing St. Louis area health leaders for "misleading the people of St. Louis," repeatedly name-checking the pandemic task force head Dr. Alex Garza, each time incorrectly calling him Garzi.
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"In November, Dr. Garzi chose to doubt our state's balanced approach, but during that same time, Missouri began a trend that has led us to be one of the lowest transmission rates of COVID-19 in the country," Parson said. "Rather than admitting that there was a wrong decision about the path Missouri is on, Dr. Garzi is now spreading information, false information about the vaccine administrated in the St. Louis area to once more spread fear and panic. The people of St. Louis deserve better from their local leaders."
Parson said Region C — which includes St. Louis, St. Louis County, Franklin, Pike, Perry, Ste. Genevieve, Jefferson, St. Charles, Lincoln, Washington, Warren and St. Francois counties — has received 37% of Missouri's federally-supplied vaccines, an allocation he says is in line with a percentage of the state's total population.
The task force released the following statement in response:
The most important thing right now is to get as many people vaccinated as quickly, safely and equitably as possible. The recent increase in the allocation of vaccine from the state will help us vaccinate more Missourians in our region.
We are confident in the way we estimate the number of doses received by Region C, and our goal has always been to ensure fair and equitable distribution of vaccine with all of our partners.
We will continue to work with the State of Missouri and our regional partners as we have throughout the pandemic, to care for our community and increase access to the COVID-19 vaccine.
The next task force briefing will be Friday afternoon.
The following data are the combined figures from the four major health systems (BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, St. Luke’s Hospital) that are part of the task force, for Feb. 11.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 50 yesterday to 42 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 51 yesterday to 47 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 409 yesterday to 400 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 382 yesterday to 367 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 39 yesterday to 33 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 93 yesterday to 92 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 61 yesterday to 59 today.
- The number of COVID deaths increased – from 4 yesterday to 7 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remained the same today at 6.
- Across the system hospitals, 68 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 18,562.