ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported fewer than 900 COVID-19 hospitalizations for the first time in more than a week while cases continued to increase.
The department reported 88,610 cases and 1,545 deaths as of Thursday, a single-day increase of 1,397 cases and three deaths.
Thursday's increase in cases was 61 fewer than Wednesday and 115 fewer than last Thursday.
Wednesday was the ninth consecutive day of more than 1,000 new cases.
The department reported a total of 1,008,087 PCR — or polymerase chain reaction — tests Thursday, an increase of 9,981 tests in the last 24 hours. The state's positivity rate increased from 8.74% on Wednesday to 8.79% on Thursday. According to the department's dashboard, the positivity rate for the last seven days was 12.9%.
On Thursday, the state reported 890 COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state, down from 935 hospitalizations reported Wednesday. The number of hospitalizations is delayed by 72 hours to ensure accuracy, so the number reported Thursday represents hospitalizations on Aug. 31.
The last time the state reported fewer than 900 COVID-19 hospitalizations was when the state reported 882 hospitalizations in the state for Aug. 23. That number was reported on the dashboard on Aug. 26 due to the 72-hour delay.
In the St. Louis area, the number of confirmed COVID-19 admission in area hospitals — which is lagged by 48 hours — increased slightly while the seven-day averages for new COVID-19 admissions and total CVOID-19 admissions remained about the same.
Here are all the numbers from the task force:
- 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) remained the same at 40 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased – from 305 yesterday to 304 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 290 yesterday to 295 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations remained the same at 107 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 79 yesterday to 82 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 44 yesterday to 47 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 42 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 5,273.
In St. Louis County, there were 187 new COVID-19 cases and 3 new deaths Thursday, bringing the totals in the county to 20,039 cases and 755 deaths.
In St. Louis, there were 33 newly reported COVID-19 cases and no new deaths Thursday, bringing the totals in the city to 6,207 cases 188 deaths.
In St. Charles County, there were 73 new COVID-19 cases and no new deaths Thursday, bringing the totals in the county to 5,976 cases and 112 deaths.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 2,849 confirmed COVID-19 cases in Jefferson County Thursday, an increase of 30 from the number reported by the state health department Wednesday.
The county says 48 people have died from COVID-19, an increase of one from Wednesday.
