ST. LOUIS — Missouri surpassed 60,000 confirmed COVID-19 cases Tuesday, but the state's overall positivity rate decreased for the first time in more than three weeks.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 60,935 confirmed cases and 1,312 deaths Tuesday, a single-day increase of 981 cases and five deaths.
The department reported 17,302 new polymerase chain reaction — or PCR — tests Tuesday, bringing the total in the state to 787,220. On Tuesday, the state's positivity rate decreased from 7.79% to 7.74%. The last time the state's overall positivity rate decreased was July 20. The single-day positivity rate of 5.67% Tuesday was the lowest in the state since July 20.
Statewide hospitalizations decreased significantly Tuesday, according to the department's dashboard. The update Tuesday, which represents hospitalization data from Aug. 8, reported 840 COVID-19 hospitalizations, down from 923 the previous day.
Hospitalization data is delayed 72 hours to ensure accuracy.
St. Louis County reported 343 new COVID-19 cases and 1 new death Tuesday, bringing the county's totals to 15,284 cases and 672 deaths. It was the first time the county has reported more than 300 new cases in a single day since last Tuesday when 314 cases were reported.
The county's average positivity rate over the last week is 8.3%, according to the county's dashboard.
A day after saying the St. Louis area was "turning the tide" of the coronavirus, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said the rolling seven-day average of new hospital admissions dipped below 40 for the first time since July 31.
RELATED: Task force: St. Louis area 'turning the tide' on COVID-19, needs to continue mitigating actions
Dr. Alex Garza, the task force's incident commander, has said the task force considers 40 new admissions per day to be in its "red zone" of concern.
Here are Tuesday's task force numbers:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 40* yesterday to 37 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 42* yesterday to 39 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 279 yesterday to 277 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 281 yesterday to 277 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 130 yesterday to 158 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 74 yesterday to 69 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 41 yesterday to 42 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 46 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 4,315.
*Due to a delay in test results, some data has changed from our previous report: The August 10 hospital admission number increases from 35 to 40. That affects the seven-day moving average, changing it from 41 to 42 yesterday.