Missouri again sets record for virus hospitalizations; days-long dashboard error fixed
More than 1,400 patients confirmed or suspected to have coronavirus were hospitalized as of Tuesday across Missouri, continuing a record-setting trend, according to the Missouri Hospital Association.
“Statewide hospitalizations continued to eclipse previous records,” the hospital association said in a newsletter sent Wednesday.
The state’s previous record for virus-related hospitalizations had been set the week before, with 1,352 patients. Various regions, including Kansas City, saw the most patients since the pandemic began.
In the newsletter, the hospital association also reported that the availability of hospital and intensive care unit beds across the state “continues to decrease.”
That included a 50% decline from the previous week in the number of ICU beds available in the northwestern Missouri, which includes Buchanan, Clinton and Caldwell counties.
Also Wednesday, the state Department of Health and Senior Services announced it had fixed a “data extract” error with its public COVID-19 dashboard, which was under maintenance since Sunday. The error led to an inaccurate inflation in cases Saturday.
With the updated data, Missouri reported more than 148,600 infections and 2,420 deaths.
The state’s positive test rate in the last seven days was about 17%.
This story was originally published October 14, 2020 at 7:43 PM.
