ST. LOUIS — Head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reiterated the St. Louis area needs to get the coronavirus under control during a briefing Friday afternoon.
"Our hospitalization data continues to become more and more worrisome as each day passes. Our hospitals are either nearly full or are full. And it's not just covered patients. People are sick and they need care in our caregivers or the ones that are feeling the strain. It'll be tough. It's tough to say how we can continue on this trend," Dr. Alex Garza said.
"We can't sustain this level of hospitalization or this increasing level of hospitalizations over time," Dr. Garza said.
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 Oct. 23.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 57* yesterday to 41 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased from 50 yesterday to 49 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 337 yesterday to 344 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 355 yesterday to 353 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations remained the same at 110 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 92 yesterday to 97 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators remained the same at 47 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 59 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 7,335.
"So I would just ask that instead of us trying to, you know, argue about the numbers, let's do what we can to help out the people that are working in the hospitals that are taking care of our loved ones. And that's a very simple thing. That's just to wear a mask," Dr. Garza said during his briefing when he was asked about hospital capacity and different reports.
