ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said COVID-19 cases continue to trend down in the St. Louis area, but it is more important than ever for unvaccinated people to wear a mask.
With jurisdictions around the St. Louis area lifting mask requirements in response to changing CDC guidance, task force incident commander Dr. Alex Garza said people are more likely than ever to interact with an unmasked, COVID-positive person.
"It's even more important now for those who are not vaccinated to continue to wear a mask because we know there will be some unvaccinated people that will most likely not wear a mask," he said. "And so the risk of being exposed to somebody with COVID that's unvaccinated is much higher now, especially if it's in a crowded indoor space."
As vaccine rollout continues in the St. Louis area, COVID-19 hospitalizations are at their lowest point since last summer. On Wednesday, the task force reported 142 hospitalizations, a ninth consecutive day of decreases, and the fewest hospitalizations since June 28.
The decrease in hospitalizations has come as the number of cases in the community has continued to trend down. There were 27.5% fewer new cases in the community over the last 14 days when compared to the previous 14-day period.
The reproductive number in the region was 0.82, meaning COVID-19 transmission is being significantly interrupted in the region.
The positivity rate for tests conducted at task force hospitals was 4.8% in the most recent update. The WHO said a positivity rate below 5% is indicative of slowed spread of the virus and adequate testing in the region. Dr. Garza said he believes that the positivity rate is representative of the region as a whole.
While the spread of COVID-19 has been slowed, Dr. Garza said the spread that is happening is mostly between unvaccinated people. He said that leaves people with two options to keep themselves healthy.
"So now there are two choices, really: get vaccinated or you can continue to wear a mask to protect yourself and others."
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 May 19.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 29 yesterday to 16 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased - from 25 yesterday to 23 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased – from 170 yesterday to 161 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 148 yesterday to 142 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 26 yesterday to 23 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 52 yesterday to 48 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 25 yesterday to 24 today.
- The number of COVID deaths remained the same at 3 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths increased – from 3 yesterday to 4 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 35 patients have been discharged over the past three days, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 22,241.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 84%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 83% of their total staffed bed capacity.