JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. — The hospital data in the St. Louis area and across Missouri remained consistent Wednesday as the state reported just under 300 new cases of COVID-19.
The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported 291 new cases Wednesday, bringing the state's total to 18,868. The state also reported 975 deaths, an increase of seven from Tuesday.
The hospital numbers in the state have been consistent in the last week even as the number of positive tests has increased in multiple areas around the state. On Wednesday, the state reported 592 COVID-19 hospitalizations across the state, one fewer than it reported Tuesday. The data is delayed 72 hours to ensure accuracy.
On Tuesday, DHSS Director Dr. Randall Williams said many of the people who recently tested positive in the state were related to an outbreak at a food plant. He said most of the food plant workers were not showing symptoms, which could partially explain why the hospital numbers have not increased.
"The vast majority of the people they were testing were asymptomatic. So that 400 number is very different than a 400 number April, in which we were only checking symptomatic people throughout communities and nursing homes," Dr. Williams said.
In the St. Louis area, the pandemic task force reported 26 new COVID-19 patients admitted to area hospitals, the highest number it's reported all month.
Despite that increase, the total number of COVID-19 patients in the hospital only increased slightly, from 245 to 247.
The full breakdown of data trends from the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force is below.
- New hospital admissions: 26, up from 16 Tuesday
- Seven-day moving average of new hospital admissions: 18, up from 16 Tuesday
- Hospitalizations: 247, up from 245 Tuesday
- Seven-day moving average of hospitalizations: 235, up from 233 Tuesday
- Patients in the ICU: 53, up from 49 Tuesday
- Patients on ventilators: 27, same as Tuesday
- Patients discharged yesterday: 19, bringing the total to 2,763
For a full county-by-county breakdown of cases in the state, use our interactive map. Some of the local county numbers come from local health departments and may not match data from the DHSS.