ST. LOUIS — Hospital capacity remains limited in the St. Louis are and the state ahead of the holidays.
Dec. 10 also marks two weeks since Thanksgiving. Dr. Alexander Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, said Thursday may be the beginning of the impact from Thanksgiving travel and gatherings.
Dr. Garza also reiterated canceling high risk holiday activities.
"In fact, there's so much virus in the community right now that most of our usual holiday traditions are going to expose you and the people around you to the virus. Traveling, shopping in crowded stores, going to parties, gathering with people from multiple households will without a doubt put you in harm's way and continue to drive this deadly pandemic," Dr. Garza said on Wednesday.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported staffed bed hospital capacity is at 84%, an average across the task force hospitals. The ICUs are at 90% of their total staffed bed capacity.
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 Dec. 10.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 147 yesterday to 110 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) remained the same at 116 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased from 889 yesterday to 888 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 887 yesterday to 898 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 76 yesterday to 93 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 194 yesterday to 192 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators remained the same at 123 today.
- The number of COVID deaths decreased – from 28 yesterday to 24 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remained the same at 22 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 130 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 12,106.
- Staffed bed hospital capacity is at 84%, an average across task force hospitals. The ICUs are at 90% of their total staffed bed capacity.
The state's health department on Thursday reported 67 new deaths from the coronavirus.
According to the Associated Press, only 10 other states have reported more deaths than Missouri over the past seven days, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Service’s daily tracking dashboard. Since Dec. 1, the state has cited 195 new deaths among the 290,000 Americans killed by the virus since its onset.
Missouri, like most of the nation, is seeing a big surge in confirmed cases, hospitalizations and deaths. The state has now recorded 4,450 deaths among 334,704 confirmed cases. The number of cases rose by 3,858 on Thursday.
Hospitals remain dangerously close to full. Inpatient bed capacity is down to 22% statewide and intensive care unit bed space is in even worse shape — 18% statewide. In northeast Missouri, just 3% of ICU beds are available, 6% are available in the southwestern part of the state and 9% in northwest Missouri, according to health department data.