The number of people being hospitalized for COVID-19 has continued to drop this week, which shows signs of decreased spread of the virus, said Dr. Alex Garza, incident commander for the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Taskforce.
Garza is now giving weekly briefings, instead of daily, to update the public about hospitalization data for the region’s four largest healthcare systems that make up the task force: SSM Health, BJC HealthCare, Mercy and St. Luke’s Hospital.
When asked if he thinks the protests against police brutality this past week will change the downward trajectory, he said that it’s a possibility.
“Anytime you get more people together in a more confined space, it’s always going to increase your probability of risk of transmission,” said Garza, who is chief medical officer for SSM Health. “However, we’re always much more concerned about indoor confined spaces than outdoor spaces.”
Everyone attending the protests should be wearing masks, especially because they will likely be chanting, he said.
“If you’re speaking loudly or shouting, you’re going to be dispersing more aerosol, which is why it’s important to wear a mask so you can protect people around you from spreading aerosol,” Garza said.
It has now been two weeks since the stay-at-home orders were lifted in the City of St. Louis and St. Louis County. This is generally when the data will show whether or not people are abiding by the public health restrictions.
One of the best markers of viral transmission is the number of new hospital admissions — which is at a new low of 15, Garza reported on June 1. (All the data is lagged by two days.) The task force uses a seven-day average of this number to see the overall trend of new patients going into the hospital. The seven-day moving average of hospital admissions was 19 today, and it was 21 last Monday. So there was not much change, but still a “positive sign” the region is moving in the right direction, Garza said.
The number of people currently hospitalized for COVID-19 in the region is 331. The seven-day moving average of hospitalizations is 363 today, which was 426 last Monday.
The number of patients in the intensive care units is 78 today and it was 86 last Monday. The number of patients on ventilators is 53 today, and it was 62 last week.
Across the system hospitals, 5 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 2,287.
“All numbers continue to show nice progress over time,” Garza said. “But the virus is still out there.”
