ST. LOUIS — ICU capacity remained at a dangerous level as the total number of COVID-19 hospitalizations increased in the St. Louis area Sunday.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported the ICUs of task force hospitals were at 87% Sunday, up slightly from Saturday. COVID-19 hospitalizations also increased Sunday, from 835 to 847.
Despite those increases, the seven-day averages for new admissions and total hospitalizations decreased slightly.
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 December 20.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 114 yesterday to 91 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 113 to 109 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased - from 887 yesterday to 883 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 835 yesterday to 847 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 70 yesterday to 97 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 170 yesterday to 181 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 111 to 117 today.
- The number of COVID deaths decreased – from 12 yesterday to 10 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths decreased – from 20 yesterday to 18 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 106 COVID-19 patients were discharged to home yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 13,347.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 80%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 87% of their total staffed bed capacity.
In Missouri, the state's health department reported 365,186 cases and 4,937 deaths Saturday, a single-day increase of 2,072 cases and 33 deaths Sunday.
The increase came as the state reported 13,217 new PCR tests, bringing the total number of PCR tests conducted in the state to 3,464,447. The single-day increase in tests was the lowest in the state since Dec. 1.
The seven-day average positivity rate increased from 16.9 to 17.1, according to the state's dashboard.
In Illinois, the state's health department reported 900,370 cases and 15,202 deaths as of Sunday, a single-day increase of 6,003 cases and 79 deaths.
The state reported 78,079 tests Sunday, bringing the total reported in the state to 12,434,525.
The seven-day average positivity rate in the state decreased from 8.2% to 7.8%.
The seven-day average positivity rate in the Metro East reported Sunday was 11.7%. It was the first time in more than a month that the positivity rate was below 12%.
According to the state's regional dashboard, having a positivity rate below 12% is one of three factors that could lead to restrictions being relaxed.
"For Tier 3 mitigation metrics to be relaxed (i.e., move to Tier 2), a region must experience less than 12% test positivity rate (7-day rolling average) for three consecutive days, AND greater than 20% percent available intensive care unit (ICU) and medical/surgical bed availability (3-day rolling average) for three consecutive days, AND decline in the number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital (7-day rolling average) in 7 out of the last 10 days."
