ST. LOUIS — The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force urged people to be vigilant this holiday weekend, as the COVID-19 numbers continue to see a slight increase in the St. Louis area.
Incident Commander Dr. Alex Garza addressed the public via Facebook Live on Friday.
Both the 7-day moving averages of new hospital admissions and hospitalizations has gone up again on Friday in task force hospitals. Dr. Garza said this the highest rolling average for new admissions since around June 4, and the numbers lead doctors to believe there is increased transmission in the community.
Here is a rundown of the new numbers from the task force on Friday:
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 11 Thursday to 24 Friday.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 17 Thursday to 19 Friday.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 142 Thursday to 145 Friday.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations increased - from 153 Thursday to 159 Friday.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations increased – from 105 Thursday to 107 Friday.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs stayed the same at 44 Friday.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 21 Thursday to 23 Friday
- Across the system hospitals, 21 COVID-19 patients were discharged Thursday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 2,946.
Dr. Garza reiterated the importance of wearing a mask when out in public, to help the St. Louis area not fall victim to the same spikes some other parts of the country are seeing.
"How this all plays out is entirely up to us as a community," Dr. Garza said.
Dr. Garza said that even though it's a holiday weekend, COVID-19 doesn't take a holiday, and wearing masks is still of the utmost importance.
"It is a pretty small ask when it comes to protecting the community," Dr. Garza said about wearing masks.
He also said wearing a mask doesn't limit freedoms, it helps enhance them. Garza said that by wearing a mask and helping keep transmission low, it will allow more things to stay open and for people to do more things.
