St. Clair County issues final Thanksgiving warning, pleads for safety over holidays
St. Clair County officials issued a final warning Wednesday ahead of Thanksgiving, pleading with the public to rethink any large social gatherings that could help spread COVID-19.
A day after St. Clair announced 292 cases, the largest daily increase of COVID-19 positive cases the county has seen since the pandemic began, County Chairman Mark Kern repeated pleas for those still planning on spending the holiday with a large group to reconsider.
“We encourage everyone to stay close to home,” Kern said during the county’s daily COVID-19 update. “We may be able to have an easier Christmas season if we don’t have a big blow-up from Thanksgiving.”
Kern said with cases spiking throughout the region, a bigger spike from the holidays could overwhelm area hospitals. This week during the county’s daily updates officials from area hospitals spoke about the possibility of hospitals being overrun if numbers continue to rise in the region.
“Our hospitals are very fearful about these numbers and handling another spike in these numbers would be very difficult,” Kern said. (Doctors) are tired and we really need to help them by keeping people out of the hospital.”
“If you stay home, if you wash your hands, if you wear your mask and you watch your social distance we think we can get through this without a big spike,” Kern said.
Positivity rate drops, but fewer hospital beds available
The metro-east’s positivity rate saw another drop Tuesday, but the region’s hospital bed availability decreased.
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.
Meanwhile, 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 to avoid the possibility of the region running out of hospital and ICU beds.
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.
During 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.
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.
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.
St. Louis Coronavirus Task Force say some ICUs are ‘completely full’
Some intensive care units at St. Louis-area hospitals have set up tents outside emergency departments to keep low-acuity patients away from COVID-19 patients, said Dr. Alex Garza, commander of the metro region’s coronavirus task force.
As much as 85% of emergency room patients are coming in with some type of coronavirus-related issue, Garza said, and some intensive care units continue to be completely full.
The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic 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.
The task force reported a new record of hospitalizations based on the seven-day moving average. It increased from 861 Tuesday to 869 Wednesday.
Health care workers are also spending valuable time trying to find intensive care unit beds for patients anywhere between St. Louis and Chicago, including Hannibal, Missouri, and Quincy, Illinois, hours away.
“The St. Louis metropolitan area does not have an intensive care unit bed for a patient here in St. Louis and we have to fly them to Hannibal, Missouri, to get an intensive care unit bed,” Garza said. “That is how bad it is.”
Every day, nurses take inventory of how many ICU beds might be available by identifying patients they believe will be able to leave, and those who are likely to die.
“That is how bad it has become,” Garza said.
After the effects of Thanksgiving gatherings start to show in cases, hospitalizations and deaths in the weeks to come, St. Louis hospital workers expect the situation to worsen.
“We believe the Thanksgiving gatherings will become superspreader events. The only question is how bad.”
Illinois reports new cases, deaths Wednesday
This information is provided by the Illinois Department of Public Health.
New cases: 11,378 (+1,909)
New deaths: 155 (+30)
New tests: 114,233(+16,910)
Total cases: 685,467
Total deaths: 11,832
Total tests: 10,104,537
Hospitalizations: 6,133 (-1)
People in ICU: 1,208 (+5)
People on ventilators: 679 (+11)
Statewide positivity rate (from Nov. 18-Nov. 24): 10.5% (+0.1%)
Wednesday’s COVID-19 breakdown for Region 4
New cases: 659
New deaths: 8 (Madison County reported six deaths and St. Clair County reported two deaths)
Daily positivity rate (as of Nov. 22): 14.6% (+2.4%)
Seven-day rolling average (as of Nov. 22): 14.1% (-0.1%)
Regional hospitalizations: 244 (-1)
Regional patients on ventilators: 29 (+6)
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
Wednesday’s new data: 226 new positives, 2,016 new tests administered, two new deaths
Total overall: 13,858 positives, 247 deaths, 150,496 tests administered, 11,327 recoveries, 97 patients hospitalized with 12 on ventilators
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 13.3% (+2.2%); 7-day average — 13.1% (no change from Tuesday)
Additional data: New positives include both males and females from below the age of 1 up into their 90s. Of the 226 new positives, 120 were individuals under the age of 40.
Congregate living facilities: Aperium Care Center reported one new case, Caseyville Nursing and Rehab reporting 14 new cases, Cedarridge of Lebanon reported five new cases, Integrity Healthcare of Belleville reported four new cases and St. Paul’s Home in Belleville reported four new cases.
MADISON COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: 220 confirmed positives, 53 probable positives, 1,777 new tests administered, six new deaths
Total overall: 13,160 positives, 241 deaths, 139,422 tests administered, 6,185 recoveries, 113 hospitalizations with 17 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, 168 were individuals under the age of 40.
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 13.9% (+0.1%); 7-day average — 14.4% (-0.1%)
CLINTON COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: 74 new positives, three new deaths
Total overall: 3,109 positives, 55 deaths, 2,390 recoveries, 13 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 19.8% (+10.7%); 7-day average — 17.4% (-0.1%)
RANDOLPH COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: 54 new positives,
Total overall: 2,162 positives, 27 deaths, 21,848 tests performed, 1,872 recoveries, 6 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 17.0% (+8.1%); 7-day average — 12.9% (-0.9%)
MONROE COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: 34 new positives
Total overall: 1,969 positives, 42 deaths, 12 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates as (of Nov. 22): Daily — 21.7% (+10.9%); 7-day average — 16.2% (+1.4%)
BOND COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: 36 new positives
Total overall (as of Friday): 952 positives, 11 deaths, 30,585 tests administered, 2 patients hospitalized
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 4.9% (-0.7%); 7-day average — 9.7% (-0.3%)
WASHINGTON COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data (Nov. 24-25): 33 new positives
Total overall: 629 positives, two deaths, 539 recoveries, 6 hospitalizations
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 32.0% (+2.0%) 8.1% (-5.2%); 7-day average — 20.4% (+0.2%)
MACOUPIN COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 2,070 positives, 23 deaths, 701 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 13.4% (-4.0%); 7-day average — 12.7% (-0.2%)
JERSEY COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 1,118 positives, 22 deaths, 900 recoveries, 11,784 tests administered
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 16.1% (-0.4%); 7-day average — 14.9% (-0.8%)
PERRY COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 1,014 positives, 20 deaths, 719 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 28.6 (+12.8%); 7-day average — 17.1% (+2.8%)
CALHOUN COUNTY
Wednesday’s new data: No new data as of 4 p.m.
Total overall: 240 positives, 1 death, 184 recoveries
Positivity rates (as of Nov. 22): Daily — 2.3% (-3.4%); 7-day average — 13.8% (-3.9%)
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 Wednesday afternoon:
- Illinois: 686,467 cases, 11,823 deaths, 10,104,537 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 25, 2020 at 4:06 PM.