ST. LOUIS — Coronavirus numbers in the St. Louis area continue to rise and the area is seeing its highest number of patients in area hospitals since the coronavirus pandemic began.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force held a briefing Monday afternoon; click here to watch.
"The virus is spreading way too quickly and making too many people sick that have to seek care in our health care systems. And sadly, we're not keeping up with the pace of the virus right now, right now. Really, the virus is winning. We now have over 600 people in the hospital with COVID-19 and another 150 who are suspected to have COVID-19," Dr. Alex Garza, the head of the task force, said during the briefing.
Dr. Garza said there are 600 hospitalizations of confirmed COVID-19 cases.
"We simply have to get the virus under control. We cannot sustain this level of hospitalizations," he added.
On Monday, St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson and St. Louis County Executive Sam Page both reiterated that the St. Louis area needs to get its COVID-19 numbers down.
"Our hospitals are nearly full and our health department is overwhelmed and exhausted," Page said Monday morning. "Our state and region are setting new records every day."
"If we are not able to make progress ... We are looking for some additional restrictions. We have to get these numbers heading down," Krewson said during her COVID-19 briefing.
Krewson noted in her briefing that the City of St. Louis is "doing better" than other parts of the state. However, people from other parts of the state get admitted into St. Louis area hospitals.
During the pandemic task force's briefing, Dr. Garza said the most significant growth for COVID-19 cases in the area over the last week occurred in St. Charles, O'Fallon, Missouri, Wentzville and Affton.
The following data are the combined figures from the four major health systems (BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, St. Luke’s Hospital) that are part of the task force, for Nov. 9.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 89 yesterday to 78 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 82 yesterday to 86 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 496 yesterday to 517 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 551 yesterday to 600 today, a new record.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 140 yesterday to 153 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 117 yesterday to 125 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 62 yesterday to 65 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 50 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 8,386.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported a cumulative total of 212,441 cases Monday -- an increase of 3,244 cases from Sunday's total of 209,917. The state did not report any new deaths.