ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in St. Louis County continues to grow.
As of April 22, there are 2,417 confirmed cases – 68 of those are new within the last 24 hours – according to the county’s dashboard.
The county’s dashboard also now includes the number of those who have recovered. There are 672 people who have recovered from the virus in St. Louis County.
Ninety-six people have died from complications related to COVID-19 in the county.
On Wednesday, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page signed an extended stay-at-home order.
The initial order was set to expire at 11:59 p.m. on April 22.
There is no end date on the new order, but Page said he will work with other officials to reevaluate around when Missouri's stay-at-home order will be lifted, which is currently May 4.
“Until we have more testing to understand how deeply this virus has penetrated our community, we cannot weaken the rules – by doing so, would jeopardize public safety,” Page said.
Page said the virus is expected to crest in the region this week.
The crest will be followed by a plateau, which means the virus will continue its ‘strong hold’ in our community, Page said.
“Later this week, COVID-19 is expected to crest in our region, what that looks like exactly – we don’t know,” Page said, “But sadly it will translate into more positive tests and more deaths.”
Page said he understands that people are anxious to get back to the way it was and acknowledged that many people want to know - when will we get back to the way it was?
“I’d like to give a definitive answer, but I can’t,” Page said. "I'm following the lead of our health care professionals, our community leaders, our hospital systems and we're all keeping tabs on the number of admissions to hospitals, ICU admissions and the number of positive tests," he said.
Page said the reopening of the county will be ‘gradual,’ when it does happen.
"Once we are comfortable that the virus is under control, we can start to look at what reopening looks like," he said.
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