ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported slight single-day increases in most of the data they track Thursday, but the rolling seven-day averages continued their downward trends.
The total number of patients in St. Louis area hospitals increased to 241 Thursday, up nine from Wednesday, when the task force reported a new low for patients in the hospital.
Despite the increase, the seven-day average decreased to 243.
The full breakdown of data trends from the task force is below.
- New hospital admissions: 14, down from 17 Wednesday
- Seven-day moving average of new hospital admissions: 14, same as Wednesday
- Hospitalizations: 241, up from 232 Wednesday
- Seven-day moving average of hospitalizations: 243, down from 246 Wednesday
- Patients in the ICU: 61, up from 57 Wednesday
- Patients on ventilators: 31, same as Wednesday
- Patients discharged yesterday: 23, bringing the total to 2,652
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.
"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.