ST. LOUIS — In the last two weeks, COVID-19 numbers have bumped up and so have hospitalizations.
As of Monday, the seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased from 262 to 268 the day before. It was 257 on Saturday.
Of the hospitalized COVID patients in the four reporting task force hospital systems, 26% of the patient population are vaccinated.
Dr. Hilary Babcock is Washington University infectious disease specialist at BJC HealthCare reacts by saying, "We're definitely worried about it, continuing to go up, given that this may be reflecting a seasonal pattern for the virus."
She notes the best way to prevent the spread is to get the vaccine and to get tested, to stop more people from getting sick.
"Testing certainly remains critically important," she emphasizes and reminds people to get tested with early, mild symptoms.
"Once it gets worse you've already exposed your friends and family and people in your community and so really at the beginning with even mild symptoms, it's important to go ahead and go get tested," she says.
As COVID numbers climb, so does the testing.
For sites like Total Access Urgent Care, staff brace for a post-holiday rush.
Dr. Troy Dinkel is Chief Medical Officer and President of Total Access Urgent Care overlooking 27 locations.
He says, "There has been a broad uptick in COVID testing for various reasons. First of all, COVID is on the rise. For us, it's an extremely busy Friday, Saturday, and Sunday after the holiday."
Dr. Dinkel notes a possible reason for the increase, "Most people, even if they have a little bit of a sore spot or a little bit of a rash or a little bit of nausea, upper respiratory stuff, they do not want to miss all the fun things that are happening at Thanksgiving. So they will say, 'I'll take care of that right after.'"
And with vaccines in the mix this holiday season, bigger groups could come in the picture too.
"If you went to a big indoor gathering and lots of people were not wearing masks and you don't know everyone's vaccination status and getting tested three to five to seven days after that event is not unreasonable," Dr. Babcock shares.
Dr. Dinkel notes its positivity rates among its multiple testing sites have gone from 6.8% at the end of October to 9.8%.
"That is with us doing over 1,000 tests a day. We probably average about 1,100 so it's a good sampling of five counties here in the greater St. Louis metropolitan area," he explains.
This means COVID-19 is spreading. Yet, that's not the only virus circulating.
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"We are starting to see flu numbers go up as well. There's really no way to tell COVID and the flu apart on the front end in terms of your symptoms. Most places that are doing testing now are doing combination testing. They will test you for both COVID and flu," Dr. Babcock shares.
To highlight a positive, she says fortunately this year, we have vaccines to combat both viruses.
"Get vaccination, you can be protected by Christmas," she points out.