Alex Garza

Avoiding renewed restrictions will depend on increasing vaccinations.

The increasing supply of the coronavirus vaccine could soon make it difficult for local health departments to get shots in the arms of people fast enough.

Some people in the St. Louis region are driving hours to get the COVID-19 vaccine in rural areas. Regional health officials say people with resources are doing so when others can’t, but they don’t fault them for it.

Vaccine doses have been so scarce near St. Louis that many area residents desperate for a shot have started traveling to rural parts of the state to find one.

In some rural counties, health agencies mistakenly doled out vaccines that were intended to be booster shots

Dr. Alex Garza said earlier this week that the region is receiving less than half of the vaccine allotment it should be based on population.

Hospitals across Missouri will soon receive help from a Texas-based company the state is hiring to provide additional workers and hospital beds. The support announced Wednesday will help hospitals care for additional coronavirus patients.

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.

With thousands of new coronavirus cases being diagnosed each day and patients crowding into hospitals, some intensive care units in Missouri are nearly full. But health care workers say the worst is yet to come, and they warn more lives will be lost without a coordinated statewide response.

People in St. Louis and St. Louis County need to comply with orders to wear masks, said Dr. Alex Garza, head of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force. But those in surrounding counties also should use them, he said.