ST. LOUIS — Missouri, Illinois and the St. Louis area all set coronavirus-related records for the third consecutive day Saturday.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported a new record for COVID-19 admissions with 99, Missouri reported a record 4,559 newly confirmed cases and Illinois reported a record 12,438 new confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases Saturday. Each of the records had been broken Thursday and Friday.
The number of new admissions also increased the seven-day average of new admissions in task force hospitals to 78, the highest of the pandemic.
Despite the record increase in new patients, the task force said hospital capacity and ICU capacity improved slightly, although both remain higher than 80%. Task force hospitals reported 100 discharges of COVID-19 patients, which was also a record.
On Friday, Dr. Alex Garza — the commander of the task force — said coronavirus conditions in the St. Louis area are worse than they have ever been.
"Just about any way you look at this, COVID is hitting us harder now more than ever," Dr. Garza said during the task force briefing. "More people are sick, more people are going to the hospital and hospitals are at or near their capacity to care for patients in our region. And not just COVID patients, but all patients."
Dr. Garza said transmission is now being driven in large part by informal gatherings.
"People can be very good about wearing a mask when out in public, but it does us no good if you take that mask off and invite 10 friends over," he said.
The simplest advice Dr. Garza provided was this: "You have to act like the virus is around you all the time."
"I know that's hard," he said, "but that's the only way we can get through this. Wear a mask, practice social distancing, six-feet away from others, use hand sanitizer, clean surfaces and help one another."
The full update from the task force Saturday is as follows:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 97 yesterday to 99 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 73 yesterday to 78 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 460 yesterday to 477 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 522 yesterday to 529 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 129 yesterday to 120 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 115 yesterday to 116 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 61 yesterday to 66 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 100 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 8,275.
- Today, the health care systems are reporting 83% capacity of available staffed beds which has improved from yesterday when it was 90%.
- The health care systems are reporting 84% capacity of available staffed beds in the ICU, improved from yesterday when it was 91%.
In Missouri, the department of health and senior services reported a total of 205,066 confirmed cases and 3,150 deaths as of Saturday, a single-day increase of 4,559 cases and 19 deaths.
According to the department's dashboard, the state's seven-day average positivity increased to 16.7%, the highest the state has reported during the pandemic.
Cases have increased by 25.2% in the last seven days when compared to the previous seven days. Testing has decreased by 1.8% in that same time.
In Illinois, the health department reported 477,978 confirmed and suspected COVID-19 cases and 10,154 confirmed COVID-19 deaths, an increase of 12,438 cases and 75 deaths Saturday.
The department also reported 98,418 new tests Saturday, bringing the total in the state to 8,313,547. The seven-day average positivity rate in the state 10.3%.
The last time the state's seven-day average positivity rate was higher than 10% was May 20.
