ST. LOUIS — Dr. Alex Garza, the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Task Force said during his Friday COVID-19 briefing that it's been a bit of an up and down week for hospital admissions.
Thirty-one new COVID-19 patients were admitted to St. Louis area hospitals on Thursday, which is down from a high of 55 admissions on Tuesday.
As for the total number of COVID-19 patients in St. Louis area hospitals, that number dropped to 266 on Thursday, from 284 on Wednesday.
"Now, those lower numbers give us some hope, suggesting that we might be interrupting transmission of the virus in our communities, specifically where people are wearing masks and it's widely adopted. However, we won't see a consistent improvement until the entire region has really embraced all of those tools, such as universal mask wearing and stop gathering and large crowds," Dr. Garza said.
Dr. Garza emphasized the importance of wearing face masks.
"'The World Health Organization announced [today] that if everyone were to wear a mask, we could save as many as 70,000 lives in the U.S. by December. So it's more important than ever for all of us to work together, young and old, from our suburban communities to our more rural partners, to our urban areas to make a big impact and save lives," he 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 Aug. 7.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 38 yesterday to 37 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 44 yesterday to 43 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased - from 267 yesterday to 274 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID-19 positive hospitalizations increased - from 266 yesterday to 279 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID-19 positive hospitalizations increased – from 132 yesterday to 148 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID-19 positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 70 yesterday to 71 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID-19 positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 39 yesterday to 37 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 40 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 4,163.
The task force also noted a delay in testing results for August 6 changed its hospital admissions data and rolling seven-day average. This number has been corrected.
- The change is:
- Aug. 6, - 38 Admissions verses the 31 originally reported. That increased the seven-day rolling average from 43 to 44.
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