ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported improving hospitalization numbers in the St. Louis area while seven-day positivity rates in Missouri and Illinois continued to fall Tuesday.
On Tuesday, the seven-day average for hospitalizations in the area was 767, the lowest in the region since Nov. 18.
The seven-day average number of admissions reported Tuesday, 93, was also the lowest in two months. The last time the seven-day average was that low was Nov. 10. The task force said 93 admissions is still far too high. The task force said 40 new admissions per day is what they consider high risk.
Despite the decreasing number of COVID-19 hospitalizations, ICU and hospital capacity remain low. Staffed hospital beds are 85% filled and ICU beds are 86% filled.
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 Jan. 12.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 81 yesterday to 96 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 94 yesterday to 93 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 780 yesterday to 767 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 782 yesterday to 760 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 70 yesterday to 61 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs remained the same at 156 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 94 yesterday to 93 today.
- The number of COVID deaths increased – from 20 yesterday to 21 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remained the same at 18 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 124 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 15,860.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 85%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 86% of their total staffed bed capacity.
In Missouri, the state's health department reported 427,117 cases and 6,155 deaths, a single-day increase of 2,131 cases and 204 deaths.
Of the deaths reported Tuesday, 176 deaths happened outside of the last 24 hours. They include:
- 3 in Oct.
- 18 in Nov.
- 142 in Dec.
- 13 in Feb.
The department reported 3,844,238 PCR tests conducted as of Tuesday, an increase of 13,957 in the last 24 hours.
According to the department's dashboard, the state's positivity rate reported Tuesday was 17.6, down from 18.1 yesterday. It is the lowest positivity rate since Dec. 27.
In Illinois, the state's health department reported 1,040,168 cases and 17,743 deaths as of Tuesday, a single-day increase of 6,642 cases and 116 deaths.
The department reported 14,263,477 tests conducted as of Tuesday, an increase of 93,491 in the last 24 hours.
The state's positivity rate reported Tuesday was 7.5%, down from 7.6% yesterday. It is the lowest positivity rate since Dec. 29.
The seven-day positivity rate in the Metro East was below the 12% threshold for the second day in a row Tuesday. That is one of the requirements to loosen restrictions put in place to limit the spread of the coronavirus, but hospital data has not improved as consistently.
On Tuesday, the state's regional dashboard reported a seven-day positivity rate of 11.5%, the second day in a row of positivity below 12%. Friday is the first day that regions can begin moving to less restrictive tier.
Despite the positivity rate improving in the region, the Metro East needs to improve the other metrics being tracked by the health department.
