ST. LOUIS — All St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force hospitals are accepting vaccine appointments for children ages 12 to 15 after Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was approved for use in the age group.
The task force includes BJC, Mercy, SSM and St. Luke's Hospital. In the weekly task force briefing, Incident Commander Dr. Alex Garza said the hospitals are excited to help children return to normal activities.
"Kids who are protected from catching and spreading COVID will be able to return to all those activities that we know are so important at this age," Dr. Garza said. "It'll decrease absenteeism in the classroom, missing fewer days, participating in sports, all those things that we've missed out on or missed over the past year."
Dr. Garza said something to keep in mind is other vaccinations your child might need. He said children can't have any other vaccine 14 days prior to getting the Pfizer COVID-19 vaccine, so parents should plan accordingly.
To schedule a vaccine appointment at any of the task force hospitals, click the links below:
"It's really exciting that we're going to be able to offer vaccinations to more of the community with that approval of the Pfizer vaccine for those age 12 to 15," Dr. Garza said. "But, and there's always a but, we still have work to do. There's still a significant portion of the population that is unvaccinated and are therefore at risk of serious disability and possible death from what is really a completely preventable disease."
Dr. Garza said the slowing pace of vaccine distribution has extended the amount of time the task force anticipates it will take for the region to reach herd immunity.
"We had some original projections of end of June, beginning of July, and of course our vaccinations have slowed since then," Dr. Garza said. "So, those projections push out to later in the year."
Dr. Garza said the task force is hoping the new age group eligible for the vaccine, and bringing the vaccine into the community with targeted events will help the distribution pick back up.
In addition to encouraging vaccine news, Dr. Garza said the task force was encouraged by the progress made on the key indicators the task force tracks.
COVID-19 admissions, virus prevalence in the community and the reproductive rate of the virus all decreased in the last week. New cases over the last 14 days are down 17.7% when compared to the previous two weeks.
"We are headed in the right direction and it is really exciting to see those metrics turning green," 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 May 12.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 29 yesterday to 30 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) remained the same at 32 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations increased – from 214 yesterday to 216 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 221 yesterday to 211 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased, from 29 yesterday to 18 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 64 yesterday to 65 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 31 yesterday to 36 today.
- The number of COVID deaths increased – from 0 yesterday to 1 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remains the same at 2 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 42 patients have been discharged, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 22,022.
- Today, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 82%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICU’s are at 79% of their total staffed bed capacity.