ST. LOUIS — The leader of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said they are working on a plan to transition from mass vaccination clinics to targeted vaccine events in an effort to boost vaccination rates.
Dr. Alex Garza, the incident commander of the task force, said mass vaccination events did the job of administering the vaccine to willing patients, but the effort needs to change to push the numbers higher.
"We've already vaccinated the low-hanging fruit — so, people that were willing to get vaccinated," Dr. Garza said. "So now it's going to take a little bit of a different approach to overcome the hesitancy or to make it more convenient, and any of these other things we can do to really push that final mile of vaccinations."
Dr. Garza said he and other hospital leaders are planning a meeting with other community leaders to develop new strategies. He said those new strategies could include working with churches, schools, businesses and community organizations.
"Rather than people coming to the vaccine, the vaccine goes to the people," Dr. Garza said.
The vaccination rates in Missouri and Illinois have slowed in the last week. According to CDC data, the seven-day average vaccination rate in both states is the lowest it has been since late February.
Dr. Garza said the vaccine has continued to shape the COVID-19 hospitalization population. With the rollout focusing on older people, fewer of those people are ending up in the hospital.
In the most recent week of data, people under age 65 accounted for more than 60% of hospitalized patients.
"Many of these patients are going to be dealing with long-term impacts from COVID after they leave the hospital," Dr. Garza said of the younger patients. "So if someone tells you you don't need to worry about contracting COVID because you're young and healthy, quite simply, they're wrong."
Dr. Garza said the potential approval of the Pfizer vaccine for children 12 to 15 years old would be significant. He said the rollout of the vaccine in this age group would help protect children from the virus and keep them from spreading it to others.
"This is just more exciting new development that gets us closer to getting out of the pandemic and back to normal," 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 5.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 33 yesterday to 34 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions (data lagged two days) increased – from 35 yesterday to 36 today.
- The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations decreased – from 209 yesterday to 206 today.
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 207 yesterday to 198 today.
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 29 yesterday to 28 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs increased – from 56 yesterday to 59 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators increased – from 18 yesterday to 20 today.
- The number of COVID deaths decreased – from 3 yesterday to 0 today.
- The seven-day moving average of COVID deaths remains the same at 3 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 40 patients have been discharged, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 21,815.
- On Wednesday, staffed bed hospital capacity is at 85%, an average across our task force hospitals. The ICUs are at 82% of their total staffed bed capacity.