Franklin County boy is the first child to die of coronavirus in Missouri – STLtoday.com

The St. Louis area has more than 400 patients hospitalized with the coronavirus, according to the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force.

Last week hospital leaders spoke with Gov. Mike Parson and state health officials, asking what the plan is to curb COVID-19 cases and advocating for a statewide mask mandate, according to the Missouri Hospital Association.

On the recorded conference call, BJC HealthCare President and CEO Richard Liekweg said there were basically no beds available for patients to transfer to across the BJC hospital system, which currently has 205 COVID-19 patients. While BJC hospitals treated more COVID-19 patients back in April, at the time they had postponed elective and nonemergency procedures, he said.

Were in the process right now of reassessing whether were going to need to start to cancel elective procedures (again) in order to accommodate what we think is going to continue to be a gradual increase in COVID patients at a time when our staff, like everyone else, is completely exhausted, Liekweg said, addressing state health director Randall Williams.

If you consider a (mask) mandate rather than just encouragement statewide we still have too many municipalities that are creating too many options for individuals. I think a statement coming from the governor would actually put us in a much better position.

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Franklin County boy is the first child to die of coronavirus in Missouri - STLtoday.com