ST. LOUIS — The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 1,138 new COVID-19 cases in the state Tuesday, a new single-day record.
According to the DHSS, the state now has 34,762 COVID-19 cases. The state also reported a total of 1,143 deaths in the state, an increase of 11 from the number reported Monday.
The health department reported 8,408 new polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, tests in the last 24 hours, bringing the state's total to 580,320. PCR tests are the swab tests that look for active infection in people.
As a result of the record increase in cases, the state's positivity rate increased from 5.88% on Monday to 5.99% on Tuesday.
The record increase Monday came after a slightly lower increase Monday, but the increases on both Monday and Tuesday were more than 18% higher than the single-day increases from a week earlier.
St. Louis County reported 247 new cases Tuesday, the second-highest single-day total for the county. As of Tuesday, the county reported a total of 9,361 COVID-19 cases. The county said 136,599 tests have been conducted in the county.
The county reported no new deaths.
St. Charles County reported 144 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday. It is the second time that St. Charles County has reported more than 100 cases two days in a row. The county reported no new deaths.
The St. Louis Department of Health reported 71 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, bringing the city's total to 3,421 cases. The city reported no new deaths.
Many of the single-day numbers tracked by the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force decreased Tuesday, but the seven-day moving averages continued to increase.
- New hospital admissions (data lagged two days) decreased – from 41 yesterday to 35 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 increased from 228 yesterday to 234 today. *
- Inpatient confirmed COVID positive hospitalizations decreased - from 260 yesterday to 250 today. *
- Inpatient suspected COVID positive hospitalizations decreased – from 176 yesterday to 152 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients in the ICUs decreased – from 58 yesterday to 55 today.
- The number of confirmed COVID positive patients on ventilators decreased – from 31 yesterday to 29 today.
- Across the system hospitals, 41 COVID-19 patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 patients discharged to 3,470.
*These numbers have been updated to reflect the true number of daily admissions. There was a delay in reporting some test results leading to the increase in reported hospital admissions. This, in turn, affected the seven-day moving average of admissions.
The task force said St. Louis Area hospitals had 40 COVID positive admissions on one given day. The Task Force Hospitals, comprising all four major health systems in the St. Louis Metropolitan Area, reported 41 admissions on Saturday.
"This sobering milestone for the St. Louis area means the virus that causes COVID-19 is spreading at a rapid rate throughout our community. Not only are more people catching the virus and spreading it to others, but they’re now impacting the vulnerable in the community, meaning more medical intervention is needed," a press release from the task force said Tuesday.
“We don’t want to get back to where we were in April when we were concerned about the availability of hospital beds and ventilators,” Dt. Alex Garza, Incident Commander for the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said in the press release.
Statewide hospitalization data in Missouri has not been updated since July 15. A note from the Missouri DHSS said the delay is due to a change in the way hospital data is reported nationwide.