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ST. LOUIS — As Missouri again broke the record for new cases of the coronavirus, officials warned that disparities based on age, race and health status continue to influence who is infected and who dies of COVID-19.

On Friday, the state reported that there have been 39,352 confirmed cases here throughout the pandemic — an increase of 1,652 for the day, breaking the previous record for the fourth day in a row.

Before this week, the state had never reported more than 958 new cases in a day. Then it identified 1,138 cases on Tuesday, 1,301 on Wednesday and 1,637 on Thursday.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force released data Friday showing that in the St. Louis metro area, Black individuals are more than four times as likely to test positive, nearly 2.5 times as likely to be hospitalized, and nearly 1.5 times as likely to be admitted to the ICU than the rest of the population.

“The burden on the Black community is larger,� said Dr. Alex Garza, chief medical officer with SSM Health and head of the task force.

Men are almost 75% more likely to die of COVID-19. Individuals with chronic conditions are 14% more likely to die of the virus. And age plays a role: Patients are almost 10% more likely to die of the virus for each added year of their life.

“These are some very sobering statistics,� Garza added.

Numbers rising

Between Monday and Friday, the state reported 6,258 new cases of COVID-19.

That’s more than four times the number of cases reported between Monday and Friday during the week of April 6 — the week Gov. Mike Parson’s stay-at-home order went into effect and schools statewide were ordered to close.

Health experts said there are likely several reasons for the increasing number of cases.

“Once you get as much virus out in the community as we have now, it’s hard to slow that down,� Garza said. “It takes participation from everybody.�

Garza said that by August, he expects cases will still be rising.

“If we can’t turn the tide on this, we’ll be back to those peak numbers of admissions in about the second week of August,� Garza said.

Dr. Stephen Liang, an infectious disease specialist at the Washington University School of Medicine, said part of the increase is probably because of broader access to testing. But people also may be interacting more, traveling, and generally adhering less strictly to social distancing rules during the summer.

And many people are likely fatigued by months of precautions and isolation.

“It never completely went away. ... I’m not really sure if you would call that a second surge, or if it’s just a first surge that never quite resolved,� Liang said. “What it probably demonstrates is that we were never able to completely contain the infection, for one reason or another, in our region.�

Many in the medical field are worried cases will continue to rise into flu season — which in the U.S. takes place in the fall and winter — resulting in simultaneous efforts to fight COVID-19 and influenza.

If residents wear masks, practice hand hygiene and adhere to social distancing — and if a large enough number of people get flu shots this year — that may ease some of the burden on health systems, Liang said.

Enbal Shacham, a professor at St. Louis University’s College for Public Health and Social Justice, said it is not easy to turn around the trajectory.

But she said that in coming weeks, she expects to see some reduction in cases related to the St. Louis and St. Louis County mask orders, which went into effect July 3. Since then, businesses such as Schnuck Markets Inc., Walmart Starbucks and CVS have also enacted mask requirements.

“I think that transition is significant,� Shacham said. “It will help reduce infections.�