ST. LOUIS — Missouri reported nearly 4,000 new COVID-19 cases Thursday after two consecutive days of reporting fewer than 3,000 cases.
The state's health department reported a cumulative total of 309,368 cases of COVID-19 Thursday, an increase of 3,998 cases since Wednesday. It also reported 59 new deaths, bringing the state's death toll to 4,102.
In Illinois, public health officials reported 10,959 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday and a second consecutive day of record-high deaths.
The 192 fatalities from COVID-19 matched the toll from May 13, at the height of the initial wave of the disease in Illinois. That total is second only to the 238 reported Wednesday.
The Illinois Department of Public Health said some data reported this week was delayed by the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Illinois now has 12,830 deaths among 759,562 coronavirus infections.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported a decrease in some metrics, including the number of hospitalizations. However, hospitals are still stressed, with staffed bed capacity at 82% and ICUs at 85% of their total staffed bed capacity.
The following data are the combined figures from the four major health systems (BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health, St. Luke’s Hospital) that are part of the task force, for Dec. 3:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 121* yesterday to 113 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased - from 117* yesterday to 112 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations remained the same at 925 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 934 yesterday to 900 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 89 yesterday to 97 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 196 yesterday to 186 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 128 yesterday to 125 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 164 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 11,259.
*Due to a delay in test results the task force reported some changes in data. The daily admissions data on Dec. 1 increased to 120, increasing the seven-day average to 121. The daily admission data on Dec. 2 increased to 121, increasing the seven-day average to 117.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.