ST. LOUIS — New COVID-19 admissions at St. Louis area hospitals decreased Thursday, but the total number of hospitalizations continued to climb. The new numbers come as both Missouri and Illinois reported record numbers for new cases.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported 52 new COVID-19 admissions at the four major hospital systems in the St. Louis Area Thursday, 20 fewer than the record-setting number reported Wednesday.
While new admissions slowed Thursday, the total number of COVID-19 patients in the hospitals increased from 407 to 412.
The seven-day average of new admissions fell from 56 to 55 Thursday. The seven-day average of total hospitalizations increased from 371 to 378.
At a briefing on Monday, Dr. Alex Garza, the incident commander for the task force, said the region was entering a crucial time in the fight to control the coronavirus.
"So the reason why I'm here today is that we're at an inflection point. If we continue down the path we're on right now, if we don't start listening to science and wear masks and stop gathering in large crowds, things could potentially get much worse," Garza said Monday.
The numbers reported by the task force Thursday are as follows:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 72 yesterday to 52 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 56 yesterday to 55 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 371 yesterday to 379 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 407 yesterday to 412 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 106 yesterday to 84 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 88 yesterday to 96 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 47 yesterday to 50 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 70 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 7,657.
Illinois reported 395,458 total COVID-19 cases as of Thursday, a single-day record of 6,363 new cases.
The Illinois Department of Public Health also reported 9,675 deaths, a 24-hour increase of 56, and 7,542,098 total tests, a single-day increase of 83,056.
The state reported a seven-day positivity rate of 8.5% for the Metro East, the same as Wednesday. The positivity rate is delayed 72-hours to ensure accuracy, so the rate reported Thursday represents the rate from Oct. 26.
Missouri reported 3,061 newly confirmed COVID-19 cases Thursday, the most in a single day that did not include a backlog of tests.
The state reported more than 5,000 cases on Oct. 10, but the health department said that was due to a data entry error.
The department also reported 29 new deaths Thursday, bringing the state's totals to 177,693 cases and 2,899 deaths.
According to the dashboard, the state's seven-day average positivity as calculated by the CDC method is 12.5%, the highest the state has reported since April. The CDC method is calculated by taking the number of positive PCR tests in the past 7 days divided by the total number of PCR tests in the past 7 days.
