St. Clair County has daily record of 292 new COVID-19 cases as positivity rate drops
St. Clair County set a daily record for coronavirus cases Tuesday, while the CEO of St. Elizabeth’s Hospital stressed caution about the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
St. Clair announced 292 cases, bringing the total to 13,632 since the pandemic began. The county’s previous daily high of cases — 279 — was set Nov. 16. Tuesday also marked the fifth-straight day St. Clair County reported more than 200 daily cases. St. Clair, however, did not report any new deaths Tuesday.
County Board Chairman Mark Kern is concerned the numbers will continue spiking due to Thanksgiving gatherings.
“We’ve got to make sure this spread does not get impacted by Thanksgiving,” he said during Tuesday’s daily briefing. “Let’s contain it. Let’s not let our numbers after Thanksgiving be like our numbers after Halloween.”
Also on Tuesday, HSHS St. Elizabeth’s Hospital CEO Patti Fischer was present during the daily update via livestream. She said the hospital has seen a decrease in hospitalizations the past week, but that the situation is still very concerning.
“We’re holding our own,” she said. “Last week we had hit a high mark where we had 50 COVID positive patients in the hospital. It has come down a little bit and we’re more around the high 30s. That is not good, but it was really worriesome when it got to that 50 mark, but we’re happy to see that it has stabilized a little bit. We’re seeing some concerning numbers but nothing that has really put us over the edge.”
Fischer said all of HSHS’s facilities now have COVID patients.
“We had tried to put together pods for our COVID patients for our largest hospitals,” Fischer said. “We moved all the COVID positive patients to the larger facilities but now we don’t have that luxury. Even the smaller facilities in Breese Highland, Greenville, and Effingham (have patients).”
She also said staff members are wearing out, both physically and mentally.
“They are struggling, and I think it’s the same everywhere across the country,” Fischer said. “It’s not only the physical toll and additional work you have to do with your PPE and respirators, but it’s also the emotional toll. You have to be an emotional support for the patients. You have to be communicating with the family.
“We have a great team and we all try to work together. We try to do what we can as a team to pitch in so nobody feels like they are in this alone. But they are discouraged.”
Fischer echoed Kern’s remarks about practicing caution over Thanksgiving. While excited about the two vaccines with a 94% or better success rate from Pfizer and Moderna, Fischer said a worst-case scenario still could ensue.
“If anyone even has the sniffles, you should make them stay home,” she said. “You need to take this very seriously. It could really be a worst case scenario — especially for us in healthcare come December. It could be really scary. I hope everybody is cautious and takes this as seriously as they should.
“You have to think long and hard about social gatherings, even small gatherings. With Thanksgiving coming up, it’s imperative we be as cautious as we can be.”
Fischer strongly encouraged people to wear masks, making a reference to smoking inside.
“Just like you wouldn’t smoke inside around your kids because you want to protect them, you have to think about wearing a mask in the same way,” she said. “You do it for the people around you. Unfortunately we haven’t done it enough even though we’ve got better. We have to be really careful with the people who don’t live in our house. And that’s what really dangerous about Thanksgiving.
“It’s a really potentially dangerous situation which will set us up for a surge we might not be able to handle in the manner we want to handle it.”
Latest hospital numbers for Region 4, St. Louis
Currently, 81.2% of staffed, intensive care unit beds in the metro-east are in use, the Illinois Department of Public Health reported Tuesday, which is up from 79% on Monday.
Only 18.8% of the region’s intensive care unit capacity was open, state health officials reported, down from 21% on Monday. Additionally, 16.5% of the metro-east’s staffed hospital beds were available for patient use, the same as Monday.
Under rules set by the Restore Illinois plan, if a region reaches or falls below the 20% threshold, the state may impose tighter restrictions.
Tier 3 restrictions went into place statewide on Friday, Nov. 20. The third tier tightens restrictions on indoor dining, bars and social gatherings while adding restrictions to casinos, retailers, video gaming and museums.
Over the past weeks, officials have warned about the possibility of the region running low on hospital and ICU beds, prompting some area hospitals to temporarily cease elective surgeries.
Several times this month, the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force has announced record hospitalizations. Tuesday was no different.
A new record for the seven-day moving average of hospitalizations was set with 861 on Tuesday, up from 854 Monday.
Also, the task force said it set a record for inpatient confirmed COVID-positive hospitalizations by jumping from 881 on Monday to 887 on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, the staffed bed hospital capacity on Tuesday was 84%, up from 81% on Monday, and the ICUs were at 86% of their total capacity, up from 84% on Monday.
The task force was formed in April to coordinate the efforts of four health systems: BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSM Health and St. Luke’s Hospital. The group’s statistics include results from BJC HealthCare’s metro-east hospitals: Alton Memorial Hospital, Memorial Hospital in Belleville and Memorial Hospital East in Shiloh.
Metro-east positivity rate falls for five days
The 7-day positivity rate for COVID-19 tests in southwestern Illinois fell Tuesday, marking the fifth consecutive day the rate has dropped.
The 7-day rolling average was 14.2% on Tuesday, down from 14.3% on Monday. The new rate is based on tests recorded as of Nov. 21. A region’s positivity rate is its percentage of positive COVID-19 tests versus the number of tests taken over a 7-day period.
The state classifies the metro-east as Region 4, which covers seven counties: St. Clair, Madison, Monroe, Bond, Washington, Clinton and Randolph. County-by-county data is available on the state health department’s website.
Additionally, the region reported a daily positivity rate of 12.2% on Tuesday, down from 13.6% on Monday.
Illinois reports new cases, deaths Tuesday
This information is provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
New cases: 9,469 (+1,147)
New deaths: 125 (+78)
New tests: 97,323 (+5,761)
Total cases: 674,809
Total deaths: 11,677
Total tests: 9,990,304
Hospitalizations: 6,134 (-37)
People in ICU: 1,203 (-3)
People on ventilators: 668 (+33)
Statewide positivity rate (from Nov. 17-Nov. 23): 10.4% (no change from Monday)
Tuesday’s COVID-19 breakdown for Region 4
New cases: 678 (-1)
New deaths: 4 (-10) (Madison County reported 4 new deaths)
Daily positivity rate (as of Nov. 21): 12.2% (-1.4%)
Seven-day rolling average (as of Nov. 21): 14.2% (-0.1%)
Regional hospitalizations: 245 (-7)
Regional patients on ventilators: 22 (-1)
Hospital bed availability: 16.5% (no change from Monday)
ICU bed availability: 18.8% (-2.0%)
New cases from nearby counties outside Region 4: 90 (-135)
New deaths from nearby counties outside Region 4: 0 (-3)
ST. CLAIR COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 292 new positives, 1,517 new tests administered, 188 new recoveries, 14 fewer patients hospitalized, 3 fewer patients on ventilators
Total overall: 13,632 positives, 245 deaths, 148,486 tests administered, 11,182 recoveries, 92 patients hospitalized with 7 on ventilators
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 11.1% (-2.6%); 7-day average — 13.1% (-0.6%)
Additional data: New positives include both males and females from below the age of 1 up into their 90s. Of the 292 new positives, 134 were individuals under the age of 40.
Congregate living facilities: Bria of Belleville reported 1 new case; Cambridge House of Swansea reported 2 new cases; Cedar Ridge Health & Rehab Center in Lebanon reported 10 new cases; Integrity Healthcare of Belleville reported 11 new cases; and Mar-Ka Nursing & Rehabilitation in Mascoutah reported 1 new case.
MADISON COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 227 new positives, 4 new deaths, 1,752 new tests administered, 74 new recoveries, 5 fewer patients hospitalized, 1 additional patient on a ventilator
Total overall: 12,887 positives, 235 deaths, 137,645 tests administered, 6,084 recoveries, 114 hospitalizations with 14 patients on ventilators
Additional data: New positives include both males and females from below the age of 10 up into their 90s. Of the 227 new positives, 98 were individuals under the age of 40.
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 13.8% (-1.2%); 7-day average — 14.5% (+0.2%)
CLINTON COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 51 new positives, 63 new recoveries, 3 new patients hospitalized
Total overall: 3,035 positives, 52 deaths, 2,255 recoveries, 11 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 9.1% (-2.6%); 7-day average — 17.5% (no change from Monday)
RANDOLPH COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 22 new positives, 863 new tests performed, 124 new recoveries, 1 fewer patient hospitalized
Total overall: 2,108 positives, 27 deaths, 20,615 tests performed, 1,831 recoveries, seven patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 8.9% (-5.5%); 7-day average — 13.8% (-0.1%)
MONROE COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 56 new positives, 6 fewer hospitalizations
Total overall: 1,935 positives, 42 deaths, 12 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates as (of Nov. 21): Daily — 10.8% (+1.8%); 7-day average — 14.8% (-0.2%)
BOND COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 30 new positives, 1,235 new tests administered
Total overall (as of Friday): 916 positives, 11 deaths, 30,019 tests administered, 2 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 5.6% (-0.4%); 7-day average — 10.0% (-0.2%)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: No new data
Total overall: 596 positives, two deaths, 556 recoveries, 5 hospitalizations
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 30.0% (+14.7%) 8.1% (-5.2%); 7-day average — 20.2% (+1.9%)
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 64 new positives, 6 new recoveries
Total overall: 2,070 positives, 23 deaths, 701 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 17.4% (+2.6%); 7-day average — 12.9% (no change from Monday)
JERSEY COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: No new data
Total overall: 1,118 positives, 22 deaths, 900 recoveries, 11,784 tests administered
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 16.5% (-3.1%); 7-day average — 15.7% (+0.9%)
PERRY COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 21 new positives, 18 new recoveries
Total overall: 1,014 positives, 20 deaths, 719 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 15.8 (+1.3%); 7-day average — 14.3% (+0.4%)
CALHOUN COUNTY
Tuesday’s new data: 5 new positives
Total overall: 240 positives, 1 death, 184 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 21): Daily — 5.7% (-5.9%); 7-day average — 17.7% (-3.1%)
Editor’s Note: The number of new COVID-19 cases for ZIP codes in each county are reported on Mondays. Information comes from county sources and the IDPH website.
State, nation, world COVID-19 statistics
Here are the latest available statistics from the Illinois Department of Public Health and Johns Hopkins University’s coronavirus map as of Tuesday afternoon:
- Illinois: 674,809 cases, 11,677 deaths, 9,990,304 tests
- U.S.: 12,786,174 cases, 263,899 deaths, 7,553,556 recoveries
- World: 59,734,991 cases, 1,405,827 deaths, 41,326,117 recoveries
Testing sites in southwestern Illinois
Here is a free COVID-19 testing option:
Wednesday, Nov. 25: 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Southwestern Illinois College, 2500 Carlyle Ave., Belleville (drive-thru only).
Additionally, the Illinois Department of Public Health offers free walk-up and drive-thru COVID-19 testing seven days a week from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. (or until capacity limits are met each day) at the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Center, Argonne Drive in East St. Louis (Interstate 64 west, exit 4A).
Capacity is limited. Hours of operation are subject to change based on available equipment. For more information, visit dph.illinois.gov/testing.
Additionally, Touchette Regional Hospital and Southern Illinois Healthcare Foundation offer daily testing in Belleville and Wood River. Call 618-646-2596 for an appointment.
This story was originally published November 24, 2020 at 5:31 PM.