ST. LOUIS (KMOX) - The stay-at-home order in St. Louis is being extended indefinitely in hopes of preventing a second, larger wave of coronavirus cases in the region. Mayor Lyda Krewson made the announcement on Facebook that she is keeping the order in place, but does not have an expiration date just yet.

The St. Louis Metropolitan Pandemic Task Force is now predicting 71,000 people in the region will be infected by the end of the month – down from earlier estimates around 80,000.

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Watch Mayor Krewson's update from Thursday afternoon:

Task force incident commander Alex Garza says for the first time, they have data showing the region's coronavirus curve is flattening, thanks to measures put in place in St. Louis.

He says the total number of COVID infections, hospitalizations and ICU stays expected by the end of the month are all trending downward.

But this isn't the time for complacency. That's what happened to cause the second wave of influenza here in 1918.

“Which actually was higher than the first wave and caused more deaths in St. Louis than initially and that’s rightly attributed to the relaxing of social distancing and the shelter-in-place orders," Graza says. “Let’s not make those mistakes of the past and end up with the results of the past because we’ve moved too fast, too soon.”

That said, Garza doesn't think we can consider relaxing those rules until at least the middle of May. He expects a hospitalization peak of 600 to 700 coronavirus patients around April 25.

Garza says 59 COVID-19 patients were discharged from regional hospitals over the last day.

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As of Wednesday afternoon, there were 27 COVID-19 deaths, 181 persons being monitored, and 743 positive cases of COVID-19 in the City of St. Louis and Krewson says 71% are African-American.

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