ºüÀêÊÓƵ County is experiencing its biggest surge in COVID-19 cases in over a year, health officials said Thursday.
Missouri’s biggest county by population recorded 1,003 new cases — the highest number since the middle of November 2020. On Wednesday, it was 774 and the day before it was 593.
The numbers are a significant change from just last week, when the county was averaging around 450 new cases a day.
“This is a dramatic and quick increase. It’s blindingly fast,†said Christopher Ave, spokesman for the ºüÀêÊÓƵ County Department of Public Health.
And, as those numbers rise, testing for the virus is becoming tougher to get.
Available appointments for tests in ºüÀêÊÓƵ and the surrounding area were few and far between as some clinic locations have stopped taking walk-ins. Meanwhile, lines are lengthening once again at testing sites as demand jumps.
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Missouri health officials have yet to confirm the spread of the highly infectious omicron variant across the state, but ºüÀêÊÓƵ County infectious disease experts believe the sharp increase in cases means it’s already here.
Neighboring Illinois on Thursday reported the highest number of daily new cases ever in the pandemic, with 18,942 cases. The previous highest was 17,608 from Nov. 5, 2020. On Wednesday, the state saw 16,581 new cases. Last week, the state was averaging half that: between 8,000 and 8,500 a day.
Nationwide, an estimated 73% of coronavirus cases are now caused by omicron, a sixfold increase in just one week, according to surveillance released Monday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In the region that includes Missouri, Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska, about 31% of cases were estimated to be due to omicron, according to analysis by the CDC.
The variant has taken over in the Northeast, where caseloads have grown rapidly.
New cases in New York increased by 80% over two weeks. In Washington, D.C., more than three times as many infections are being identified now than at the start of December, according to The New York Times case tracker.
Dr. Hilary Babcock, infectious disease expert with BJC HealthCare in ºüÀêÊÓƵ, said scientists are learning that omicron cases double every two to three days because of how easily it transmits and its short incubation period.
“Omicron will crowd out delta over a pretty short timeline, over the next week or so,†Babcock said. “What we can expect is that there will be more cases.â€
ºüÀêÊÓƵ County health officials urged residents to reassess the risks of many activities, including traveling and attending gatherings. Residents should especially consider the risk to vulnerable individuals, including young children who cannot get vaccinated, the elderly and those with underlying health conditions.
The county’s positivity rate is now 11.4%, a sign that many more cases are going undetected.
“The community is not as safe as it was a month ago, and you should consider that as you plan your activities,†Ave said.
‘Not an island’
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ region along with the rest of Missouri has been seeing an increase in cases since the end of October, as holidays and colder weather have brought more people together indoors and debates over mask mandates caused confusion over mask-wearing.
Hospitalizations have also been on the rise, and ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area hospital leaders have reported long waits in emergency rooms and few beds available because of staffing shortages.
Preliminary data shows disease from omicron could be less severe; but even if the chance of ending up in the hospital is lower, the sheer numbers could still cause trouble.
“What I’m going to be watching is how fast our hospitalizations are rising,†said Nebu Kolenchery, director of communicable disease for ºüÀêÊÓƵ County’s health department. “That is one thing I’m worried about. Hospital capacity is a very big issue right now. They are already strained.â€
The health director for ºüÀêÊÓƵ, Dr. Matifadza Hlatshwayo Davis, said the city is seeing its highest number of daily cases since January of this year and is likely to soon see an exponential increase like the county.
“We are not an island,†she said. “We will see omicron move quickly.â€
Davis said she is also concerned about hospitals as more people will surely get sick.
“As a region we are trying to be proactive and not reactive,†she said, which includes holding town halls about vaccine safety and informing employers on how to keep their employees safe. “We have a very difficult winter ahead of us, and we need to be very clear in messaging.â€
Finding tests
The increasing numbers come as more people seek tests ahead of the Christmas holiday.
Mercy spokesman Joe Poelker said the system had seen a notable increase in demand for testing in recent days. A testing location in Kirkwood that conducted 100 to 200 tests a day before Thanksgiving tested 500 people on Wednesday, and urgent cares saw a 13% increase in testing compared to the previous week.
Online appointment sign-ups for CVS and Walgreens locations across the metro area were booked until Sunday, and even then, few slots were available.
Dozens of cars packed the parking lot Thursday at a COVID-19 testing site at the IBEW local hall at 5850 Elizabeth Avenue in ºüÀêÊÓƵ. The testing site is run by the Department of Health and Senior Services from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. each Monday and Thursday, and the lot was still full close to 7 p.m. At least one person in the lot said he was not able to get tested despite waiting more than two and a half hours.
Davis said testing “has been happening seamlessly†at sites in the city, which include union halls such as the Elizabeth Avenue IBEW facility and federal qualified health centers like Affinia and Betty Jean Kerr People’s Health Center. Locations can be found at .
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ County health department announced Thursday it would no longer test walk-ins at its health centers following an “extremely high demand for testing.†Those testing sites are closed Friday and Saturday.
Lauren Knight, SSM Health’s director of retail health, said SSM’s urgent care clinics in the region saw an 11% increase in testing this week.
Knight said it was important for everyone to seek testing if they have symptoms.
“I want to remind folks that COVID symptoms mimic the cold and the flu,†she said. “It’s really important to seek out reliable testing regardless of your vaccination status.â€
What you can do
The Christmas and New Year’s holidays will affect how quickly data is gathered and reported, making it harder to know the latest on omicron’s spread and its impact.
Reports on wastewater surveillance, which can detect the presence of variants across Missouri, are completed about every 10 days. The next report is due out Friday, which is Christmas Eve and likely to affect when information will be released to the public.
The last report detected low levels of omicron in wastewater samples collected at treatment facilities in Jackson County and St. Joseph, near Kansas City.
The ºüÀêÊÓƵ Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force will also not be releasing COVID-19 hospitalization reports until Monday. The latest report on Wednesday showed 118 COVID-19 patients were admitted to ºüÀêÊÓƵ-area hospitals, the highest since Jan. 13.
The best defense against getting sick, experts say, is to get vaccinated if you haven’t yet and get a booster if you are 16 and older and it’s been six months since your second dose. Those who got the one-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine over two months ago are recommended to get a second Pfizer or Moderna shot.
Wearing a mask when indoors in public places is also recommended. A surgical mask or N95 mask works best. And get tested if experiencing symptoms such as cough, sore throat or congestion.
Taylor Tiamoyo Harris of the Post-Dispatch contributed to this report.
COVID-19 in Missouri and Illinois: By the numbers
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: 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.
NOTE: On Oct. 11, Missouri announced that a database error had resulted in an “incorrect inflation†of cases in its Oct. 10 report
Note from ºüÀêÊÓƵ 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 ºüÀêÊÓƵ Healthcare System.
Note from Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services: Note: Due to an abrupt change in data measures and the reporting platform issued by the White House on Monday, July 13, and effective Wednesday, July 15, Missouri Hospital Association (MHA) and the State of Missouri were unable to access hospitalization data during the transition. .
NOTE: On Thursday, Nov. 18, 2021, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) began counting probable death along with confirmed deaths.