'Really encouraging': St. Louis task force says Covid conditions improving, but hospitals still stretched thin

The number of Covid-positive patients in St. Louis-area hospitals is starting to decline from the record-high numbers of the Omicron variant, but hospital leaders said their staff is still stretched thin. "We're finally starting to see some good progress in our fight against Omicron," Dr. Alex Garza of the St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force said in a briefing Tuesday. "Our hospitalization totals continue to bounce around a little bit, but in general, they're trending down. And that's really…