Hospitalization concerns grow as state health leaders meet to discuss coronavirus surge

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services hosted a virtual meeting to discuss the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in the Show Me State.

State leaders raised concerns over growing hospitalization numbers along with vaccine numbers in Missouri.

The department says its focus will continue to be on educating Missourians about the safety of the coronavirus vaccines. The department says this includes taking out ads at St. Louis Cardinals and Kansas City Royals baseball games.

The department's website reports 1,118 people hospitalized in Missouri with COVID-19. Of those, 336 are in the ICU with 177 patients on ventilators.

In Friday's meeting, leaders say the state is well prepared with a stockpile of 500 ventilators.

As of July 8, the state's seven-day average of new hospitalizations sat at 1,068 new patients per day. Just a month ago, that average was 675 new patients per day.

ICU hospitalizations per day have also taken a leap over the past month. As of July 8, the average was 321.1 new patients per day compared to 163.9 new patients per day June 8.

Locally, Boone County's COVID-19 dashboard lists hospital status at yellow, as of Friday. This could mean hospitals are dealing with any number of issues, including:

- Delaying non-emergency patient transfers from referring hospitals due to capacity for greater than two days, or

- Delaying non-emergency patient transfers from referring hospitals due to staffing for greater than two consecutive days, or

- Delaying non-urgent procedures and operations to provide additional inpatient capacity

Boone County reports 66 patients hospitalized with the virus however only 11 of those are Boone County residents. Of those 66 hospitalized, 22 patients are currently in the ICU. Boone County's five-day average for new cases is 32.6 as of Friday. This, a sharp increase from just a month prior on June 8, when the average was 5.8 new cases.