Drop in Missouri COVID-19 cases stalls

ST. LOUIS -- After weeks of declining COVID-19 transmissions across Missouri, experts worry the drop has stalled and caseloads could start to rise again.

"Every time you think this pandemic is going to keep going down, it throws you a new curve ball," Dr. Alex Garza, the head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force, told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The number of new daily cases of the coronavirus peaked in January then began to drop sharply. Missouri's seven-day average dropped below 500 a day last month, for the first time since the summer. The St. Louis region's daily average hospital admissions tumbled to 35, the lowest in eight months.

With vaccinations on the rise, the St. Louis region is on track to get about 75% of the adult population vaccinated by late June.

But experts note caseloads and hospitalizations have stalled at current levels for about four weeks. Many worry that people are letting their guard down prematurely.

The state's tally on Monday showed that Missouri has reported 491,133 confirmed cases of the virus and 8,504 deaths.