At least 5 new deaths in Missouri from COVID-19

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Missouri experienced its deadliest day of the coronavirus pandemic Saturday.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services reported 24 deaths so far from COVID-19, but it does not include at least two deaths in St. Louis and as many as six in St. Louis County.

According to a webpage linked from the St. Louis County COVID-19 website, there were eight additional deaths in St. Louis County, bringing the total to 11. The state report shows five.

Four women died in St. Louis, three in their 70s and one in her 50s, according to a Friday announcement from the St. Louis Department of Health. The death toll in St. Louis is now five, according to the city count, and three by the state’s tally.

Also on Saturday, Gov. Mike Parson issued a call for medical professionals who are not working to join a specialized state team that responds to critical health emergencies.

The state health department also recorded an additional 178 positive tests for COVID-19, bringing the total since the first case was discovered on March 7 to 2,291.

There have also been six deaths in Greene County, three in St. Charles County and one each in Boone, Camden, Cass, Henry, Jackson and Lafayette counties. The county for one death has not been determined.

The additional deaths came in the period between when Parson issued his statewide stay-at-home order on Friday and the time it takes effect at 12:01 a.m. Monday.

The new order sets limits on the number of people who can be in any business location allowed to remain open. Parson called it tougher than any of the 43 local stay-at-home orders issued by cities and counties since the pandemic arrived in Missouri.

A Columbia lawmaker, Democratic state Rep. Kip Kendrick, said he saw big problems with Parson’s order.

“If you look closely at the order, there’s just some definite holes in it as well,” Kendrick said.

It allows some non-essential businesses to stay open and seek waivers for social-distancing regulations.

“Having read just basically through what has been released on the website so far, the order does not seem to go as far as the municipalities have gone in the state of Missouri,” Kendrick said.

In addition to a rising death toll, the coronavirus pandemic continues to spread to all areas of the state.

Of the 117 local health jurisdictions that report to the state health department, the contagion is present in 77.

The largest outbreaks of COVID-19 continue to be in the state’s urban areas. St. Louis County as of Saturday had 864 cases, with another 287 in the city of St. Louis. On the western side of the state, Kansas City reported 172 infections and Jackson County outside Kansas City had 135 more.

Boone County, with 75 cases on the state report and 69 cases in the county health department count, has the most infections outside the largest metropolitan areas, followed by Greene County with 62 and Johnson County with 29.

To deal with the growing numbers, medical workers to resume practicing would become part of the Missouri Disaster Medical Assistance Team. The state is asking health care students, retired health care workers and those whose professional registration recently expired to apply online for the team.

“We are calling on all available medical professionals to support the effort to fight the virus by joining a critical reserve unit now focusing on providing care in high need areas across the state,” Parson said in a news release. “Their efforts can help save the lives of their fellow Missourians.”

Individuals are needed with backgrounds in medicine, nursing, allied health, dentistry, biomedicine, laboratory science, logistics and communications.

Medical personnel from the team have already deployed to augment staffing at Golden Valley Hospital in Clinton and Western Missouri Medical Center in Warrensburg.

Also on Saturday, major health care systems in the St. Louis region announced the creation of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force. Participants include the BJC HealthCare, Mercy, SSMHealth and St. Luke’s Hospital.

The task force aims to ensure collaboration and coordination of supplies, hospital beds and other critical assets. It also plans daily public briefings about regional efforts to stop the spread of the virus.

Nationally, there were 297,575 confirmed infections in the United States at 2 p.m. Saturday, with 8,098 deaths attributed to COVID-19. The numbers reported in the U.S. grew by more than 24,000 in less than 24 hours, with the number of deaths up more than 1,021 in the same period.

Worldwide, the tracking data on cases confirmed by testing approached 1.2 million Friday afternoon, increasing by about 80,0000 in 24 hours. Deaths worldwide that are blamed on the coronavirus now total 63,832.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.