ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported improving hospital data again Tuesday as the vaccine rollout continued in Missouri and Illinois.
The task force reported decreases in the seven-day average of admissions, hospitalizations and deaths Tuesday.
It comes a day after the task force reported "really good news" in regards to COVID-19 hospitalizations.
On Monday, task force commander Dr. Alex Garza said suspected and confirmed COVID-19 patients took up 9.4%, below the 10% threshold that had put the task force in the yellow zone indicating a cause for concern.
"Our bed occupancy, really good news to report with this, this has been the first time in a long time that we have been below that yellow mark for our total in-patient census," Dr. Garza said.
RELATED: Task force reports 'really good news' as COVID-19 patients take up fewer than 10% of hospital beds
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. 9.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 41 yesterday to 42 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 54 yesterday to 53 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 431 yesterday to 421 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 419 yesterday to 400 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 34 yesterday to 46 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 87 yesterday to 81 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 65 yesterday to 62 today.
- The number of COVID deaths decreased – from 6 yesterday to 5 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths decreased – from 7 yesterday to 6 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 73 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 18,423.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 82%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 83% of their total staffed bed capacity.
In Missouri, the health department reported 467,313 cases and 7,149 deaths as of Tuesday, a single-day increase of 649 and six deaths.
The department also reported 4,265,085 PCR tests, a single-day increase of 8,247 tests.
The department said the seven-day positivity rate for the state was 7.7%.
The department's vaccine dashboard reported 716,038 doses administered as of Tuesday, a single-day increase of 22,570. The dashboard said 8.9% of people have one dose and 2.8% of people have two doses.
The state has announced a number of new programs in an effort to improve the rollout.
One of the efforts is allowing recently retired healthcare providers to administer COVID-19 vaccines. The rule was changed Tuesday.
“We value our all-hands-on-deck approach as we continue implementing our vaccine plan, and partnerships will become especially vital as vaccines become more widely available in the future,” said Missouri Health Director Dr. Randall Williams. “We have been listening to feedback from our colleagues from throughout the state, and we are so grateful to those recently retired healthcare workers who are willing to help their fellow Missourians as we anticipate the arrival of more vaccines as they become approved for use.”
In Illinois, the health department reported 1,150,170 cases and 19,686 deaths as of Tuesday, a single-day increase of 2,082 cases and 18 deaths.
The department also reported 16,739,500 tests as of Tuesday, a single-day increase of 55,705.
The state's 7-day positivity rate was 3.3% Tuesday.
The health department's vaccine dashboard reported 1,417,156 vaccinations distributed as of Tuesday, 58,189 in the last 24 hours.
