St. Clair County Emergency Management Agency Dr. Omer Badahman, infectious disease physician at Memorial Hospital Belleville, talked about hospitalizations for COVID-19 in 2021 as the delta variant of the coronavirus spread in Illinois and Missouri. Editor’s note: This story was originally published by the Belleville News-Democrat, a news partner of St. Louis Public Radio. St. Clair County officials continued sounding alarm bells about an uptick in COVID-19 cases in a weekly check-in with the public on Wednesday as the leaders pleaded with residents to take the vaccine to protect themselves against an emerging Hospitalizations are increasing again after record lows in May and June, and the patient demographic has changed, according to Dr. Omer Badahman, an infectious disease physician at Memorial Hospital Belleville, who spoke during a briefing on the status of COVID-19 in the county.