ST. LOUIS — Missouri’s COVID-19 totals for Saturday were delayed because of an update to the statewide reporting system, according to the state Department of Health and Senior Services.
By 8:30 Saturday night, the agency had not released its daily update of coronavirus totals, which it typically releases at 2 p.m.
On Friday, the state had announced a new electronic case reporting system that would replace all forms of paper reporting that could contain “inaccurate or incomplete information,†according to a statement from the department.
As of Friday, there were more than 57,300 cases and 1,300 COVID-19 deaths in the state.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force reported that new hospital admissions for COVID-19 increased slightly Saturday.
St. Louis hospitals reported 46 new daily admissions within 24 hours, nine more than the day before, according to the task force, which is a coalition of BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St. Luke’s Hospital.
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The admissions data lags two days to get complete figures, but the data released Saturday brought the seven-day rolling average to 42, down slightly from 44 earlier in the week.
That average peaked at 58 on April 10, before falling to around 14 in late June. The number steadily climbed through July.
Dr. Alex Garza, head of the task force, has said that any number above 40 daily COVID-19 admissions is concerning to the hospital systems in the region.
In Illinois, COVID-19 case numbers continued to rise Saturday with the state reporting more than 2,000 new cases for the second day in a row.
Illinois added 2,190 cases and 18 deaths Saturday, the highest daily total of new cases since May 24.
That brings the state to 192,698 cases and 7,631 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Note from St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force: The data includes patients at BJC HealthCare, SSM Health and St. Luke's Hospital. As of Jan. 17, 2022, the data includes patients at the VA St. Louis Healthcare System.
These maps and charts show the spread of COVID-19 in Missouri and Illinois.
NOTE: On Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) changed how it reports COVID-19 cases and deaths. The department began counting reinfections as new cases, and added epidemiologically linked cases to its counts.
On April 17, 2021, DHSS adjusted a database error that was causing individuals with both a positive PCR and antigen result to be counted as both a probable and confirmed case. This correction removed 11,454 cases that were counted twice in previous probable antigen cases, according the notation. That date's data has been removed from this display.
Beginning March 8, 2021, DHSS began posting county-level data showing "probable" COVID-19 cases detected by antigen testing. Using the historical data from the DHSS dashboard, we reconfigured this graph to include that number in the total.
Missouri updated its data dashboard on Sept. 28. 2020, to delete duplicate cases. This resulted in a decrease of total cases which caused the daily count to reflect a negative number. That date's data has been removed from this display.
NOTE: On Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) changed how it reports COVID-19 cases and deaths. The department began counting reinfections as new cases, and added epidemiologically linked cases to its counts.
On April 17, 2021, DHSS adjusted a database error that was causing individuals with both a positive PCR and antigen result to be counted as both a probable and confirmed case. This correction removed 11,454 cases that were counted twice in previous probable antigen cases, according the notation.
Beginning March 8, 2021, DHSS began posting county-level data showing "probable" COVID-19 cases detected by antigen testing. Using the historical data from the DHSS dashboard, we reconfigured this graph to include that number in the total.
Missouri updated its data dashboard on Sept. 28. 2020, to delete duplicate cases. This resulted in a decrease of total cases which caused the daily count to reflect a negative number.
Note from Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services: The discrepancy in the number of deaths on July 19, 2020, was
Erin Heffernan
Courts reporter
