COVID-19 update: Kansas reaches 99 cases, businesses adjust to stay-at-home order
The number of confirmed COVID-19 cases surged in Kansas and Missouri on Tuesday as Kansas City area residents and businesses adjusted to new stay-at-home orders aimed at slowing the spread of the new coronavirus.
In Kansas, 19 more cases were reported Tuesday afternoon, including new cases in Leavenworth, Sedgwick, Wyandotte and Johnson counties.
The state has confirmed 99 cases, according to health officials. There have been two deaths, in Wyandotte and Johnson counties.
According to state health officials, 2,186 tests have been conducted for COVID-19 in the state. About 4.5% of those patients tested positive.
The state also adjusted the number originally reported Monday, noting on Tuesday’s update that it misreported two cases in Douglas County and one in Mitchell County.
Missouri health officials confirmed 73 additional cases of COVID-19 on Tuesday afternoon, bringing the state to a total of 255.
New cases were reported in Kansas City, Jackson County and Cass County as well as other counties across the state.
The highest number of confirmed cases in the state is in St. Louis County, where 100 people have tested positive for the disease. Among the sick in the county are five members of the same family.
Eight people have died from the disease in the state thus far. Tuesday afternoon two additional deaths were announced at a Springfield assisted living home where health officials said an 80-year-old woman died from the virus Tuesday morning.
“Although the COVID-19 pandemic is still developing here in Missouri and across our nation, it is already clear it will have a more sweeping impact on the entire state of Missouri than any other previous disaster that has impacted our citizens,” Sandy Karsten, director of Missouri’s Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday at a news conference.
Also at the news conference, Gov. Mike Parson said he did not plan to release non-violent inmates after a prisoner in the Missouri Department of Corrections tested positive for the virus Monday.
“People are incarcerated for a reason and that’s because what the law is,” Parson said.
Meanwhile, Kansas City area residents and businesses are adjusting to a new normal as stay-at-home orders took effect.
Residents will still be able to go grocery shopping, exercise and get medical care. But all non-essential businesses were ordered to close.
Kansas City and Johnson, Jackson and Wyandotte counties were the first jurisdictions to impose such changes. Other area counties have followed. Ray County, Missouri issued a similar order Tuesday.
In response to the changes the Kansas City Streetcar announced Tuesday it would only operate two streetcars for the duration of the order.
And, local restaurants are adjusting as well. Already relegated to takeout service only, Lidia’s Kansas City in the Crossroads gave away food to employees from noon to 2 p.m. Tuesday.
The Kansas Department of Health and Environment announced Tuesday that Kansas WIC participants and applicants no longer need to be physically present to receive benefits.
The program, which is funded by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, provides nutritional assistance to low-income pregnant women, infants and children from birth to age five.
The waiver will last through May 31, unless it is extended. Clinic locations are available online at kansaswic.org.
Also Tuesday, the federal Department of Health and Human Services awarded $100 million to healthcare centers to respond to COVID-19.
The Kansas City Care Clinic, Swope Health Services and Samuel Rodgers Health Center in Kansas City all received funding.
Nationwide over 51,000 people had been infected by the virus by Tuesday afternoon, according to data kept by Johns Hopkins University in New York.
The Associated Press and The Star’s Luke Nozicka, Bob Cronkleton and Joyce Smith contributed to this report.
This story was originally published March 24, 2020 at 4:34 PM.
