ST. LOUIS — Hospital numbers in the St. Louis area continued to trend down Wednesday although the number of new cases in the state saw a jump Wednesday.
On Monday, Dr. Alex Garza, the incident commander of the task force, said promising trends in hospitalization and modeling data show the St. Louis area is starting to limit the spread of the coronavirus, and the hospital numbers improved again Wednesday.
On Monday, Dr. Garza also said it is important for the area to keep its collective guard up.
"As we've said before in our recent wave of cases, it's very important to not become complacent," Dr. Garza said. "These trends show us that we're starting to interrupt transmission of the virus in the community."
RELATED: Task force: St. Louis area 'turning the tide' on COVID-19, needs to continue mitigating actions
On Wednesday, the hospitalization data improved again.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 39* yesterday to 35 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) remained the same at 39.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 277 yesterday to 274 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 277 yesterday to 260 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 158 yesterday to 149 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 69 yesterday to 74 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 42 yesterday to 45 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 51 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 4,366.
*Due to a delay in test results, some data has changed from our previous report, the August 11 hospital admission number increases from 37 to 39 but does not affect the seven-day moving average.
On Wednesday, Dr. Garza again emphasized the importance of the widespread use of masks. He also addressed a study that found some gaiters could help spread COVID-19.
Dr. Garza said the study authors acknowledged that the study was not exhaustive when it came to what material the gaiters were made of, which he said is key when picking any kind of face covering.
"Just to be on the safe side, you may want to think twice about using that type of mask or seeing what type of material it's made out of to make sure it's being effective both for everybody and for yourself," Dr. Garza said, "because as we've shown before, it also protects the wearer when you're wearing a mask."
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 1,595 new cases and 11 new deaths Wednesday, bringing the totals in the state to 62,530 cases and 1,323 deaths.
The increase in cases is 614 more than Tuesday, 354 more than last Wednesday and the highest the department has reported since July 31.
The department reported 11,361 new polymerase chain reaction — or PCR — tests Wednesday, bringing the total in the state to 798,581. On Wednesday, the state's positivity rate increased from 7.74% to 7.83%.
Statewide hospitalizations increased slightly Wednesday after a significant decrease the previous day. The department reported 861 hospitalizations Wednesday. The data is lagged three days to ensure accuracy, so the number reported Wednesday reflects the number of hospitalizations on Aug. 9.
