ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. — The next week will be an important one in deciding whether indoor dining restrictions can be loosened, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said Monday morning.
“We’ll have to wait and see how this week goes and whether or not we’re trending in the right direction,” he said.
The county’s ban on indoor dining has been in effect since Nov. 17. The original plan was to reevaluate COVID-19 trends and numbers after a month.
Over the weekend, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported decreases in a few of the key categories – including new hospital admissions, the seven-day average of new hospital admissions and the seven-day average of hospitalizations – but the number of patients in the ICU increased.
Page said that snapshot of numbers from the weekend doesn’t represent a trend, but he is hopeful the numbers will continue to decrease.
“When we see that downward trend, we can start to consider backing off some of our public health restrictions,” Page said.
You can watch Sam Page's full briefing from Monday morning in the video player below:
Page was asked why the county has decided to ban indoor dining, while health officials in the city have not. Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, St. Louis and St. Louis County have generally followed the same protocols, with this most recent indoor dining ban being the biggest deviation.
On Friday, the Joint Board of Health and Hospitals in the city said it isn’t fair to single out one industry when it comes to tougher restrictions.
“I don’t think it’s proper to target one particular industry, restaurants have been highlighted, and to impose restrictions on them disproportionate to other businesses,” said Dr. Will Ross, chair of the board. “I don’t think that’s fair and I don’t think the science supports that.”
Page said county health officials are following guidance from the local task force, the White House task force and other health care leaders in the area.
He also cited an update the CDC released Friday.
“The CDC reaffirmed and stated very clearly that indoor dining remains a high risk for transmission, especially in areas where the positivity rate is high like it is here in Missouri and St. Louis,” Page said.
The CDC’s website lists avoiding nonessential indoor spaces as a recommended public health strategy. Here is the guidance from the CDC that Page referenced Monday morning:
“Exposures at nonessential indoor settings and crowded outdoor settings pose a preventable risk to all participants. Indoor venues, where distancing is not maintained and consistent use of face masks is not possible (e.g., restaurant dining), have been identified as particularly high-risk scenarios. Crowded events in outdoor settings have also been linked to spread of SARS-CoV-2, although it can be difficult to isolate the impact of crowded outdoor events from related indoor social interactions. To reduce risk, some restaurants are providing take-away service and well-ventilated open-air dining … Community-level policies can further reduce transmission by promoting flexible worksites (e.g., telework) and hours, as well as by applying limits to occupancy of indoor spaces and to the size of social gatherings.”
St. Louis County has ordered five restaurants to close their doors for continuing to serve diners inside.
St. Louis County has 55,883 confirmed COVID-18 cases as of Sunday morning. The numbers for Monday haven’t been updated yet. The county is reporting an average of 581 new cases a day. The positivity rate over the past week is 18.1%.
Here is the full breakdown of data for the St. Louis area from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 132 to 109
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased 119 to 117
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased from 920 to 912
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased from 868 to 865
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased from 107 to 74
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased from 187 to 194
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased from 118 to 115
Across the system hospitals, 90 COVID-19 patients were discharged on Saturday, bringing the cumulative number of patients discharged to 11,604.