ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said numbers are going in the right direction, but there are still nearly 400 COVID-19 patients in area hospitals.
In a Tuesday afternoon briefing, Dr. Clay Dunagan said the number of cases in the St. Louis area started to show a decline in the last week or two after weeks of plateauing. Although the cases are going down overall, they are up in some age groups.
"This decline hides a bit of a change in demographics and the underlying patients," Dr. Dunagan said, "and I just want to remind people that right now we have much higher rates of disease in kids under the age of 19."
The task force has also seen decreases in the number of COVID patients admitted to area hospitals each day and the total number of people hospitalized with COVID-19.
Dr. Dunagan said they are encouraged by the recent numbers, but they still have room to improve.
"Those are encouraging signs, although clearly, this is a lot more people in the hospital than we would like."
The easiest way to keep people out of the hospital is to get vaccinated. He said 80% of the people hospitalized due to COVID-19 are unvaccinated.
Most of those who are hospitalized despite being vaccinated fall under the qualifications to receive a booster shot.
Last week, the CDC authorized booster shots of the COVID-19 vaccine for certain people who've received the Pfizer shot.
Adults with medical conditions considered "high risk" for severe COVID-19 and those age 65 or older should get an additional dose of Pfizer six months after their initial vaccinations, the CDC announced Friday. They also made way for adults working or living in high risk settings to get additional Pfizer doses.
The task force said the St. Louis area remains under 50% fully vaccinated. While the region continues to work toward immunity levels that will slow the spread of the virus, Dr. Dunagan said mask-wearing is the primary action that people can take to further slow the spread.
He agreed with the new mandate in St. Louis County, saying the level of transmission in the region remains too high.
"At this point, we still have a high degree of transmission in the community," Dr. Dunagan said. "An estimated four to five out of every 1,000 individuals in the community are carrying COVID infections, and we often don't know they have them because they're asymptomatic or presymptomatic. That's really just too high a rate not to address.
"And so the mask mandate is necessary and appropriate to get through this final stage of this fourth wave."
Dr. Dunagan also addressed treatments for people who do test positive for COVID-19.
In the question-and-answer section of the briefing, he addressed the use of Ivermectin to treat COVID-19, as some patients have requested. Ivermectin is a drug that was developed to treat parasitic infections. In a lab study, it was found to inhibit the replication of COVID-19, but the concentrations required to get that effect are "much higher than are judged to be safe in humans."
He said the lone clinical study that showed a benefit to COVID patients given Ivermectin had to be withdrawn because there was evidence that much of the data was falsified. Other studies have failed to show any benefit to the treatment.
"Currently, none of the pandemic task force hospitals will administer Ivermectin to a patient because there is no determined benefit and there's the potential for reactions or drug interactions that may cause harm to a patient," he said.
One treatment that has shown promise is monoclonal antibodies. He said people who had a recently diagnosed case of COVID-19 can potentially receive the treatment, as can people at high risk of bad outcomes who have been exposed to a documented positive case.
He said the treatment prevents replication of the virus similar to what an immune system would do. Anyone wanting to get a monoclonal antibody treatment should contact their physician. Dr. Dunagan said any physician in the St. Louis area can prescribe the treatment for their patients.
The briefing comes as the number of hospitalizations continued to decrease in the area while deaths have remained elevated. As of Tuesday, the seven-day average of hospitalizations is at 403, the lowest since Aug. 1. The seven-day average of deaths in task force hospitals was eight. The previous nine days, the seven-day average was nine.
The data for September 28 is as follows:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 50 Monday to 44 Tuesday.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased - from 55 Monday to 53 Tuesday.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased – from 408 Monday to 403 Tuesday.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID-positive hospitalizations decreased – from 398 Monday to 397 Tuesday.
- Inpatient suspected COVID-positive hospitalizations decreased – from 46 Monday to 41 Tuesday.
- The number of confirmed COVID-positive patients in the ICUs increased - from 118 Monday to 128 Tuesday.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased - from 95 Monday to 98 Tuesday.
- The number of COVID deaths decreased from 8 Monday to 5 Tuesday.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths decreased – from 9 Monday to 8 Tuesday.
- Across the system hospitals, 66 patients were discharged Monday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 28,284.
- Of the 368 hospitalized COVID patients in the three reporting Task Force hospitals Tuesday – 72 are fully vaccinated. That’s 20% of the patient population.
- There are 8 COVID-positive children who are 0-11 years of age in Task Force hospitals.
- There are 6 COVID-positive children who are 12-18 years of age in Task Force hospitals.
- There are 4 COVID-positive children who are 0-11 years of age and in the ICU.
- There are 2 COVID-positive children who are 12-18 years of age and in the ICU.
- Tuesday, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 88% an average across our task force hospitals. The ICUs are at 82% of their total staffed bed capacity.