ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ

ST. LOUIS — Less than a month after the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force ceased holding regular briefings, a rebound in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations has prompted the group to resume its weekly updates.

The St. Louis region, which had maintained relatively stable case rates through much of the spring, has seen jumps in recent weeks. Health officials say the highly transmissible delta variant of the virus has a foothold, and more testing and vaccinations are needed to stop its spread.

“The best time to get vaccinated was really yesterday or weeks ago. But a good time is today,� said Dr. Alex Garza, SSM Health chief community health officer and head of the task force over the past year.

“The number of people with COVID in the ICU is increasing dramatically,� Garza said. “The number of COVID patients on ventilators to help them breathe is increasing. And quite frankly, the number of people protecting themselves and the community by being vaccinated is just not keeping pace with this deadly disease.�

State health officials also spoke out Friday, when Missouri reported more than 1,500 new confirmed cases — the most since Jan. 29. That drove the seven-day average up to 885, from 786 the day before, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis.

Dr. George Turabelidze, a state epidemiologist with the Department of Health and Senior Services, said at a briefing that parts of the St. Louis, Columbia and Kansas City areas are now seeing increases in COVID-19.

“Do not assume it is over. It is not over, by far. And get vaccinated,� Turabelidze said. “That is what we can do as a community to stop this outbreak from going out of control.�

The virus has spread rapidly throughout southwest Missouri in recent weeks. In Greene County, home to Springfield, the seven-day average of new cases hit 171 on Friday, the highest level since Jan. 13. The county reported 205 hospitalized COVID-19 patients, nearing the peak of 237 seen on Dec. 1.

Garza warned that because the St. Louis metro region is behind on vaccinations and because there is a more transmissible variant of the virus circulating, the coming weeks will likely bring more cases and hospitalizations.

The delta variant recently became the most common strain in the U.S. And the region that includes Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska is reporting the highest proportions in the nation, according to from the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The variant worries health officials because it is more easily transmissible than previous strains, meaning it can spread more quickly. Higher vaccination rates are necessary to slow its spread in a community.

According to task force data, most of the COVID-19 patients admitted to area hospitals recently are from the metro area; just 14% have transferred here from outstate Missouri.

And the patient population has steadily grown younger in recent months, a trend attributable to lower vaccination rates among younger age groups. People younger than 45 make up 39% of COVID-19 patient encounters here, compared with 14% in early February.

On June 14, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force held what its leaders hoped would be its final media briefing. But on Friday, Garza held another briefing.

Garza will soon deploy to Kuwait as a U.S. Army reservist, so Dr. Clay Dunagan, BJC HealthCare’s chief clinical officer and an infectious disease expert at Washington University, will hold the next task force briefing, on Thursday.

Robert Knodell, acting director of the Department of Health and Senior Services, said during the department’s Friday briefing that if hospitals need additional staffing, the state can provide it through an agreement with the firm Vizient. The state also can provide ventilators from the state stockpile, he said. So far, the state has not received requests for either.

The Mercy health system, facing a shortage earlier this week, made internal transfers. It moved more ventilators to Mercy Hospital Springfield from hospitals in St. Louis and northwest Arkansas. Plus, 10 Mercy physicians from the St. Louis area will start working in southwest ÁñÁ«ÊÓƵ on Monday, and more travel nurses are on the way, the health system said in a statement Friday.

The federal government has deployed two people from a “surge response� team to assist the Springfield-Greene County health department, said Turabelidze, the DHSS epidemiologist. One of the individuals is helping the department address residents’ concerns about the vaccines, and the other is working on data analysis of cases among vaccinated residents, a relatively uncommon phenomenon often referred to as “breakthrough� cases.

The state, he added, did not have details yet on additional federal surge response help.