ST. LOUIS — COVID-19 Hospitalizations continued to trend up in the St. Louis area Saturday as Missouri reported more than 2,000 new cases Saturday.
On Saturday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported the highest seven-day averages of new admissions and hospitalizations in more than a month.
The seven-day average of new admissions reported Saturday, 46, was the highest since Aug. 30, and the average for hospitalizations, 302, was the highest since Sept. 5.
All the numbers reported by the task force are as follows:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 49* yesterday to 55 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 43 yesterday to 46 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 296 yesterday to 302 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 304 yesterday to 322 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 85 yesterday to 82 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 – 38 yesterday to 40 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 55 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 7,035.
*A delay in test results increased the number of admissions on Friday from 48 to 49 but did not change the seven-day moving average.
On Saturday, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services dashboard reported 154,928 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 2,580 deaths, an increase of 2,357 cases and 121 deaths.
Saturday's increase in cases is the highest of the pandemic other than the update on Oct. 10, which the health department was an error.
The increase in deaths is the second-highest of the pandemic, behind Oct. 9, when 136 new deaths were reported.
The state's positivity rate continued to increase as well. The department said the overall positivity for the state was 11.1% Saturday, and the seven-day average positivity rate was 19.3%. The seven-day average positivity reported Saturday was the highest the state has reported during the pandemic.
According to the state's dashboard, 118,735 tests have been conducted in the last seven days, 10% fewer than the previous seven days.
According to the state's dashboard, the seven-day average for hospitalizations reached a new high Saturday.
The dashboard said a total of 1,431people were hospitalized on Oct. 16, the most recent data reported. The seven-day average surpassed 1,400 for the first time, going from 1,394 on the 15th to 1,408 on the 16th.
A note on the dashboard said the weekend hospitalization data is not complete.
"Many providers do not report data for weekends until the following Monday, so daily data for the most recent Saturday and Sunday will be inaccurate until then," the note said.
In Illinois, the state reported 339,803 cases and 9,192 deaths, an increase of 3,629 new cases and 27 new deaths.
The positivity rate reported for the Metro East Saturday was 7.0%, the same as the previous day. The positivity rate in the region had increased in each of the previous seven days, according to the state's regional dashboard.
