ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported the highest number of coronavirus hospitalizations in the St. Louis area since early May.
On Tuesday, the task force reported 394 hospitalizations, an increase of eight from the previous day. The seven-day average of hospitalizations also increased from 360 to 366.
The number of current hospitalizations reported Tuesday was the highest since May 9, when the task force reported 406 total hospitalizations.
All the numbers reported by the task force are as follows:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 48* yesterday to 56 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 53* yesterday to 55 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 360 yesterday to 366 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 386 yesterday to 394 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 72 yesterday to 74 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 98 yesterday to 89 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 50 yesterday to 41 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 59 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 7,533.
*Sunday’s admissions data was corrected, changing from 52 admissions to 55 due to a delay in test results changing the seven-day average from 51 to 52. Monday’s admissions data was adjusted to 48 from 46, changing the seven-day average to 53 from 52. We apologize for any issue this may cause.
On Monday, Dr. Alex Garza, the leader of the task force, said the task force is troubled by recent hospital trends when it comes to COVID-19.
"For months now, I've stood here and talked about why it's important to keep COVID-19 under control, how it could overwhelm our health care systems, exhaust our health care workers, impact our schools, sports and the economy, and take the lives of those we love. It's changed our lives in a lot of ways," Dr. Garza said.
"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."
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 172,717 COVID-19 cases and 2,838 deaths, an increase of 1,695 cases and 28 deaths in the last 24 hours.
According to the state dashboard, statewide positivity has increased slightly in the last seven days. The number of cases is down 3.5% according to the dashboard, but the testing also decreased by 7.5%, according to the dashboard.
The department reported a seven-day positivity rate of 22.9% for Oct. 24, the most recent data reported.
The DHSS dashboard reported 1,486 COVID-19 hospitalizations for Oct. 26, the most recent data reported. The number reported for Oct. 26 was an increase of 64 hospitalizations over the previous date.
One of the hospital systems in the state errantly reported more than 2,800 COVID-19 hospitalizations on Oct. 23, causing the seven-day average to artificially spike.
