St. Louis County reported 16 COVID-19 deaths and 135 new cases on Friday, April 24. The county has now reported 117 deaths and 2,653 cases since the onset of the pandemic.
Though the county has stopped transparently reporting raw numbers for death by race, it reports that the death rate for COVID-19 for blacks was three times that of whites.
The county reports that 42.1% of positive tests in the county were of black people and 39.8% were of people who identified as two or more races. Blacks form only 24.9% of the county’s population.
With 117 deaths in 2,653 cases, 4.4%
of those in the county who were reported positive have died.
A communications representative for the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said its incident commander Dr. Alex Garza always cautions against looking at day-to-day numbers versus longer term trends.Â
The task force’s modeling says the peak for hospitalizations and ICU patients for the region will take place on Saturday, April 25.Â