Coronavirus Coverage by Sarah Fentem

In spring, the region's largest hospital systems put a moratorium on elective procedures and surgeries. But another freeze could prove financially devastating for hospitals overwhelmed with coronavirus patients and short-staffed.

St. Louis Children’s Hospital is treating adult patients with the coronavirus. The hospital began admitting adult patients with COVID-19 to relieve doctors at Barnes-Jewish Hospital, which is nearing its capacity.

Epidemiologists at St Louis University say the rate of new coronavirus cases significantly decreased in St. Louis and St. Louis County after government officials began requiring people to wear masks in public.

At St. Luke's Hospital in Chesterfield, patient techs, nurses and therapists are working twice their normal hours and trying to avoid burnout during a pandemic with no end in sight. Hospital leaders say that they soon won’t have enough staff to care for patients, and health workers have been pushed to their emotional and physical brink.

The state Department of Health and Senior Services plans to send 340,000 coronavirus vaccine doses to essential health workers by the end of this month, Director Randall Williams said Friday afternoon. The federal government’s Operation Warp Speed likely will ship the Moderna and Pfizer vaccines to the health department in the next few weeks, Williams said.

Public health officials in Missouri and Illinois are bracing for a surge in coronavirus cases after Thanksgiving gatherings. Health experts had cautioned against traditional family dinners and parties for the holiday, as the virus is mostly being spread through small gatherings in private residences.

Missouri expects to receive the first doses of the coronavirus vaccine next week, state health officials said on Friday. The federal Food and Drug Administration is expected to approve a vaccine from drug developer Pfizer. Missouri officials have said the immunizations are the key to bringing an end to the pandemic that has killed nearly 5,000 Missourians and sickened hundreds of thousands more. The state will initially receive 51,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine. Those doses will be used to vaccinate workers at select health care facilities.

The federal Food and Drug Administration has approved the first coronavirus vaccine for emergency use in the United States. The federal government will begin shipping the vaccine to Missouri and other states within days. Public health officials have said a widely available vaccine will ultimately control the pandemic that has killed nearly 5,000 people across the state, overwhelmed hospitals and devastated businesses.

Mercy Health employees were among the first in the region to receive the newly approved coronavirus vaccine after the first shipments of the shots arrived in Missouri early Monday. The federal government is shipping 51,000 initial doses of the vaccine to the state’s health care workers this week, and millions more are expected to come in the next two months.

Hospitals struggled with a shortage of health care workers before the coronavirus pandemic, but they’re really stretched thin as they admit hundreds of patients with the virus every day. To fill gaps in the workforce, hospitals in the St. Louis region are relying more on temporary workers.