St. Louis task force reports increases in new COVID-19 patients, total counts continue to decline

ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis coronavirus task force reported slight increases Friday in the number of new COVID-19 patients in the four major hospital systems in the area.

On Friday, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported 19 new patients, an increase of 14 reported Thursday. The seven-day moving average of new hospital admissions also increased from 14 to 15 on Friday.

However, the overall number of coronavirus patients in area hospitals decreased Friday, as did the seven-day moving average of total patients.

The graph below shows both the daily (white bars) and seven-day average (blue line) of new coronavirus patients who checked in to task force hospitals.

The graph below shows both the daily (white bars) and seven-day average (blue line) of total COVID-19 patients who are being treated at task force hospitals.

The full breakdown of data trends from the task force is below.

• New hospital admissions: 19, up from 14 Thursday
• Seven-day moving average of new hospital admissions: 15, up from 14 Thursday
• Hospitalizations: 222, down from 241 Thursday
• Seven-day moving average of hospitalizations: 238, down from 243 Thursday
• Patients in the ICU: 52, down from 62 Thursday
• Patients on ventilators: 31, same as Thursday
• Patients discharged yesterday: 22, bringing the total to 2,674

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On Monday, incident commander Dr. Alex Garza also presented data showing that Black communities are at a higher risk of testing positive and ending up in the hospital due to COVID-19.

According to task force data, Dr. Garza said Black residents in the St. Louis area are about four times more likely to test positive for COVID-19 and more than twice as likely to end up in the hospital due to COVID-19.

Dr. Garza said 60% of Black patients who test positive for COVID-19 get admitted into the hospital, compared to about 40% of white patients.

RELATED: 'It's more Black lives that we're losing': Task force releases more data showing racial disparity in COVID-19 cases

"Again, this tells a story that we've said before, that COVID disproportionately affects the Black community much more than the non-Black community, and we've finally been able to generate some numbers in order to show that discrepancy," Dr. Garza said.

The task force's next live briefing will take place on Monday, June 22 at 3:30 p.m.