ST. LOUIS (KMOX/AP) - The city of St. Louis announced its first death due to the coronavirus on Monday.
St. Louis Mayor Lyda Krewson says the victim is a woman in her 30s who tested positive for COVID-19 on Sunday.
Krewson says this should be thought of as a warning to those that this disease doesn't only effect "older people."
St. Louis City and St. Louis County have just begun a thirty day stay at home mandate issued over the weekend.
Dr. Fred Echols, St. Louis City Health Director said the victim tested positive Sunday night and was only recently hospitalized. He says this case is not travel related but they still don't know how she got it. According to Dr. Echols, they are now tracking down anyone she might have exposed to the virus to make sure they are okay.
"There have been rumors and myths circulating in the community," said Dr. Echols. "One of those myths is that young people cannot get it. So this case is evidence that young people can get it, and that it can cause death. And so the measures that we will continue to recommend everyday -- stay at home if you are ill, cover your mouth if you cough, wash your hands with soap and water regularly -- are really important and they should be adhered to -- not only to protect yourself, but to protect your family, your friends and the community at large."
"This is an equal opportunity destroyer of worlds," said Dr. Fred Buckhold, a SLU Care general internist at SSM Health Saint Louis University Hospital. "COVID-19 doesn't care about your social strata or where you live, we are all vulnerable and at risk for getting this. The older you are, the odds this causes a severe illness are higher. But this can cause severe illness for anybody and cause death for anybody and that's kind of the part that's so scary."
Missouri has had more than 130 cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus, and three deaths.
Four teachers and the parent of a student at a preschool in the St. Louis suburb of Creve Couer were among the latest to catch the disease. There also was evidence in St. Louis County of “community-spread,” in which it’s not clear how an infected person contracted the virus and its origin can’t be traced.
In southwestern Missouri, the Springfield-Greene County Health Department announced Monday that its positive cases had grown to 17 from 10, including four new coronavirus cases tied to the Morningside of Springfield-East nursing home. Springfield-Greene County Health Department Director Clay Goodard said the nursing home cases were the county’s first so-called community spread cases, in which officials couldn’t figure out how those patients caught the disease.