ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force announced decreases in five main data points they’ve been sharing over the past several weeks.
The most noticeable decrease was in the total number of COVID-19 patients who are currently receiving care at the task force hospitals. The number went from 596 patients on Thursday to 506 Friday, a drop of 90 coronavirus patients.
“That’s probably our second lowest number since we started collecting all of our data,” commented Dr. Alex Garza, incident commander of the task force.
That number had been in the 600s and even reached the 700s three weeks ago.
The seven-day rolling average of COVID-19 patients in the hospital also saw a significant decrease Friday from 646 to a daily average of 625 patients.
Another key decrease was in the number of new coronavirus patients admitted to task force hospitals. The seven-day rolling average went down by one to an average of 38 new patients a day. Dr. Garza said that number was as high as 60 new patients a day back in early April.
“All of our numbers are trending down, which is a good sign,” Dr. Garza said.
Here is the full breakdown of number trends the task force is monitoring:
- Hospitalizations: 506 patients, down 90 from Thursday
- ICU: 133 patients, down 14 from Thursday
- On ventilators: 104, down two from Thursday
- Hospitalizations, seven-day rolling average: 625 patients, down 21 from Thursday
- New hospital admissions, seven-day rolling average: 38, down one from Thursday
- Patients released from area hospitals: 56, bringing the total to 1,609 COVID-19 patients discharged from task force hospitals since the first confirmed case
“We’ve significantly suppressed the spread of the virus which is critical to reopening the economy and we want to make sure we don’t go backwards,” Dr. Garza said.
Even though the numbers are moving in the right direction, Dr. Garza stressed it is more important than ever to continue social distancing measures and good hygiene as local economies are planning to reopen.
“Whether that’s shelter in place, washing our hands, keeping surfaces clean. With the whole goal of keeping that transmission rate as low as possible because we know once we start relaxing things, it always is going to increase the rate of transmission, but if we can keep that low enough we should be able to open up different parts of the economy,” Dr. Garza explained.
He said leaders in the St. Louis city and county communities are all working together to develop the best plans for reopening the economies. He said the decisions are data-driven and with the safety of the public in mind.
“But remember, after all of the reopening it doesn’t mean we go back to life as normal, or pre-COVID. It’s going to be a new normal,” he said.