The City of St. Louis, St. Louis County and St. Charles County have extended their stay-at-home orders indefinitely.
“This remains a fluid situation,” said Mayor Lyda Krewson, at a briefing at 2 p.m. on April 16. “We are not setting an end date. We will revisit this by mid-May. Hopefully, we will have more information to be able to lift that order.”
As part of the city’s order, people are required to wear masks when in public, and essential businesses are required to provide the appropriate Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) for their employees. The county has also encouraged this but not required it.
This morning, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page also ordered the extension.
“We have made progress, but now is not the time to weaken the social distancing policies that are working,” he wrote on Twitter.
Shortly after the city’s announcement, Missouri Gov. Mike Parson extended the statewide “Stay Home Missouri” Order through May 3.
Krewson said regional leaders relied on data from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Taskforce, which includes four major health care systems: BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St Luke’s Hospital.
The task force anticipates that the region will see its peak in COVID-19 cases at the end of April. At the region’s peak, anywhere from 600 to 1,500 people could be hospitalized at any one time.
Based on the task force’s projections, more than 71,000 people of the region’s 2.8 million people could be infected with the virus by the end of April — though about 30 percent will be asymptomatic. That is down slightly from the task force’s initial estimate of more than 80,000.
“It is a reflection that all of the things we have been doing — including shelter in place, social distancing and other actions — are helping,” said Dr. Alex Garza, incident commander for the taskforce. “But this is still a significant number.”
There’s no question that the virus is still going to hit this area and hard, Garza said during a briefing on Monday, April 13.
“How hard depends on what we do as a community. It’s easy to get frustrated and want to gather in larger groups, especially with the warmer weather,” Garza said. “However, I can’t stress enough that we are reaching a critical time and we can’t let up.”
