ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported a single-day record for new coronavirus admissions across the major hospitals in the St. Louis area Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the task force reported 72 new COVID-19 admissions across the four hospital systems, breaking the previous high of 69 reported on April 8. The seven-day average for new hospitalizations also increased Wednesday to 56, the highest since April 11 and just lower than the record high of 59 reported on April 9.
In previous briefings, task force incident commander Dr. Alex Garza said they don't typically focus on single-day numbers, but the update sent by task force Wednesday specifically noted in bold that Wednesday's number was a single-day record.
“In September, we were concerned when our admissions totals climbed over 40. Seeing totals like this is heartbreaking,” Dr. Garza said in a press release Wednesday.
On Wednesday, the task force also reported more than 400 current COVID-19 patients for the first time since May 9.
In the Wednesday press release, the task force said the regional health care systems are reporting they’re at an average of 85% capacity and growing. The ICUs are at 75% capacity and growing, the task force said.
All of the numbers released by the task force are as follows:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 56 yesterday to 72 today, which is the highest one day total we have seen.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased from 55 yesterday to 56 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 366 yesterday to 371 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 394 yesterday to 407 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 74 yesterday to 106 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 89 yesterday to 88 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 41 yesterday to 47 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 54 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 7,587.
The record number of new admissions in the St. Louis area came on a day when Missouri and Illinois combined to report more than 8,000 new COVID-19 cases.
In Illinois, the state health department reported 389,095 cases and 9,619 deaths, single-day increases of 6,110 cases and 51 deaths. The increase in cases was the second-highest day on record, just 51 fewer than the 6,161 reported by the state Saturday.
Testing in the state has continued to increase, but not at the rate that cases have. As a result, the seven-day average positivity rate across the state has increased throughout the month of October.
The Metro East positivity rate increased Wednesday from 8.3% to 8.5%. The number reported by the state's health department is delayed 72 hours to ensure accuracy, so the number reported Wednesday represents the average on Oct. 25.
New restrictions on dining and other services returned to the region Wednesday due to the increasing positivity rate. The Metro East is one of four regions with new mitigation measures in place due to the positivity rate, according to the state's website.
In Missouri, the state health department reported 174,632 cases and 2,870 deaths as of Wednesday, a single-day increase of 1,915 cases and 32 deaths.
According to the department's dashboard, 12,385 new cases have been reported in the last seven days, a 2.4% increase from the previous seven days. The dashboard also said 116,934 tests have been conducted in the last seven days, a decrease of 3.8% over the previous week.
The department reported a seven-day average positivity of 23.5%, the highest of the pandemic. Missouri calculates seven-day positivity averages by taking the number of new cases divided by the number of new individuals PCR tested in the past 7 days.
The state also provides the positivity rate as calculated by the CDC method, which 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. By the CDC calculation, Missouri's seven-day average positivity rate has been 11.8% for the last three days, which is also the highest of the pandemic.
