St. Louis County sets new single-day record for COVID-19 cases, Missouri reports more than 1,000 for 6th day in a row

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — St. Louis County on Sunday reported more than 500 new COVID-19 cases in a single day for the first time.

On Sunday, the St. Louis County Health Department reported 523 new cases, bringing the county's total to 11,210. The county reported 2,455 new tests Sunday, and the county's positivity rate increased from 7.28% on Saturday to 7.51% on Sunday.

According to the county dashboard, the average positivity rate in the county for the last seven days was 8.8%.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported four new COVID-19 deaths in the county Sunday, bringing the county's total to 632.

St. Louis County has twice as many COVID-19 cases as any other jurisdiction in the state and accounts for more than one-fourth of the total cases in Missouri. St. Louis County accounts for about one-sixth of the total population of Missouri.

RELATED: 'It wasn’t new to us' | Task force leader says warning from Dr. Birx was not a surprise

RELATED: Report: Dr. Birx warns that St. Louis, 10 other cities need to take 'aggressive' action in COVID-19 fight

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported more than 1,000 new cases across Missouri for the sixth consecutive day. 

On Sunday, DHSS reported 1,218 new COVID-19 cases in the state, bringing the statewide total to 41,927.

The increase Sunday was 135 fewer than Saturday, but was 372 more than the increase last Sunday, and was a record increase for a Sunday. 

The state reported 7,230 new polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests in the last 24 hours, bringing the state's total to 626,951. PCR tests are the swab tests that look for active infection in people. The state's positivity rate increased for the sixth consecutive day Sunday, from 6.57% to 6.69%.

The state also reported 15 new COVID-19 deaths Sunday.

Statewide hospitalization data has not been updated on the DHSS dashboard for more than a week.  A note from the Missouri DHSS said the delay is due to a change in the way hospital data is reported nationwide.

RELATED: White House tells hospitals to bypass CDC on COVID-19 reporting

In the St. Louis area, most of the data the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force tracks decreased or remained the same.

• New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 41 yesterday to 36 today.
• The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) remained the same at 40 today. *
• The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations remained the same at 246.
• Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 245 yesterday to 240 today.
• Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 90 yesterday to 97 today.
• The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs remained the same at 59 today.
• The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators remained the same at 28 today.
• Across the system hospitals, 23 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 3,670.

*These numbers have been updated to reflect the true number of daily admissions. There was a delay in reporting some test results leading to the increase in reported hospital admissions. This, in turn, affected the seven-day moving average of admissions.