The number of people hospitalized in the St. Louis region saw a significant jump of nearly 100 people from Sunday, April 19 to Monday, April 20.
“The virus is continuing to spread,” said Dr. Alex Garza, chief medical officer for SSM Health, on Monday, April 20.
Garza is the incident commander for the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force. The task force includes four major health care systems: BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St Luke’s Hospital.
Every day, Garza gives a briefing on the task force’s COVID-19 statistics that represent 2.8 million people for an area that encompasses surrounding counties in Missouri and Illinois in the larger St. Louis region.
Garza reported on April 20 that there were 757 people currently hospitalized within the four medical systems, up from 659 on Sunday. Of those, 196 were in the intensive care unit (ICU), up from 173. And 142 people were on ventilators, up from 139.
On the positive side, there were 26 discharged from the hospital.
The St. Louis region is still on the trajectory to reach its peak in the COVID-19 pandemic around April 25 — where anywhere from 600 to 1,500 people could be hospitalized at any one time.
When asked to respond to anticipated protests to reopen Missouri’s economy, Garza said, “The challenge is opening too fast too soon. The reasons for that are clear. We’ve seen examples of this in the past. You can create a second wave, which can be worse than the first wave.”