ST. LOUIS — St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force head Dr. Alex Garza called for three statewide measures Friday as the region grapples with escalating coronavirus hospitalization rates.
Garza said a statewide mask mandate, a statewide "safer at home" policy and a plan to help already-exhausted health care workers would help mitigate the worst effects of coronavirus on St. Louis's stressed healthcare system.
"Our healthcare heroes have fought valiantly day after day, but we have no reserves," Garza said.
Garza warned if hospitalization rates continued their spike, there would soon be no more beds nor nurses to keep up with caseloads, and patients would be turned away or sent away to hospitals outside the St. Louis area.
"It is spreading too quickly and making too many people sick for the healthcare system to handle," Garza said. "Make no mistake, we are at war; and right here, right now the virus is winning the war."
Garza's scenario is already playing out for people living just northeast of St. Louis.
Steve Lewis's daughter, Ashley Lewis, said her father originally went to the hospital in Decatur, Illinois Oct. 24 with coronavirus concerns. He was sent home to watch his own vitals, but when he returned on Nov. 5, the situation was more serious for him and the hospital. They were out of space.
"When I found out he was going an hour away by ambulance, I was scared. And I felt really helpless," Ashley Lewis said.
For the past eight days, Ashley's dad -- under 65 years old with no co-morbidities -- has been in a Springfield, IL hospital.
"I mean it's just a nerve-racking waiting game because there's nothing we can do. Nobody can visit the COVID patients, so my mom couldn't go with him -- not in the ambulance -- and she can't go into the hospital still," Ashley Lewis said.
During his Friday briefing, Dr. Garza said the same scenario is headed for St. Louis, emphasizing that a statewide mask mandate could bring down numbers in the rural counties which are currently sending so many patients to St. Louis and stretching resources thin.
As for Steve Lewis in Springfield, his blood-oxygen levels are showing improvement and his daughter says he likes what he sees ahead of him.
"My mom was dropping off a package, and [staff] happened to sit him up right then, so she got to wave to him through a window. He told her she 'looks hot,'" Lewis said, adding with a laugh "It was a good update."
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