Southwest Missouri hospitals begin to surpass winter COVID-19 surge. St. Louis County warns of rising cases

ST. LOUIS — Hospitals in southwest Missouri are beginning to surpass the level of COVID-19 patients seen in the winter of 2020, and St. Louis-area officials are bracing for infection rates to continue to rise here, too.

On Monday, Mercy Hospital Springfield had more COVID-19 patients than at the peak in December, and Greene County’s infection rates showed no signs of retreat.

“Not only are cases continuing to rise, but they’re rising faster,” said Aaron Schekorra, public health information administrator for the Springfield-Greene County Health Department.

In the St. Louis region, hospitalizations for the virus have been increasing for three weeks. Health officials have warned that the more transmissible delta variant of COVID-19 is circulating here and have called on residents to get vaccinated to tamp down its spread.

During a briefing Monday morning, St. Louis County Executive Sam Page said the county’s rate of new cases has risen 63% in two weeks.

“We’re not expecting a slowdown anytime soon,” Page said.

The case rates are highest among communities with low vaccination rates.

In the inner north suburbs of St. Louis County, where vaccinations have been slow, the infection rate is 250% higher than the inner central suburbs.

Among residents in their teens, 20s and 30s, the infection rate is four to five times that of residents in their 70s, Page said. And the infection rate among Black residents is five times that of white residents.

The delta variant of COVID-19 has become the most common strain of the virus in the U.S., accounting for 51.7% of cases here, according to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

And the Midwest has the highest rates of the strain in the country, with the variant accounting for 80.7% of COVID-19 cases in the region that includes Missouri, Kansas, Iowa and Nebraska.

The delta variant has been associated with symptoms of the common cold. The county has advised residents — vaccinated and unvaccinated alike — to immediately seek testing if they experience symptoms, including headache, sore throat, cough or fever.

“Do not assume that these symptoms could be a summer allergy,” Page said.

In southwest Missouri, Mercy Hospital Springfield on Monday had 134 patients with COVID-19, surpassing the hospital’s winter peak of 113, seen on Dec. 28, according to a spokeswoman.

The hospital opened a sixth COVID-19 unit over the weekend. Last year, the hospital had as many as five COVID units at one time, the hospital’s chief administrative officer, Erik Frederick, said Sunday in a post on Twitter.

Across Greene County, there were 226 virus patients in total — nearing the winter record of 237 seen on Dec. 1.

“We are truly in a very dangerous predicament,” Springfield Mayor Ken McClure said Monday during a briefing. “We just cannot overcome it without getting a large portion of our community vaccinated.”

Despite accelerating caseloads, Springfield and St. Louis County officials indicated that new restrictions aren’t likely, instead emphasizing vaccines as the path forward.

McClure said mask mandates served a purpose for Springfield earlier in the pandemic, but at this point, would be “unenforceable,” and would dilute resources the health department needs. Vaccines, he said, are the only viable solution.

Page said St. Louis County would consider restrictions if the health department recommends them, but at this point, they are not under discussion.

Missouri’s seven-day average of new confirmed cases has more than doubled over the course of three weeks, to 931 on Monday, from 459 on June 21, according to a Post-Dispatch analysis. Over the past week, the state has reported 48 deaths due to the virus.

Missouri reported on Monday that 2.78 million people have received a first dose of vaccine, or 45.3% of the population. And of those, 2.44 million, or 39.7% of the population, have been fully vaccinated.