Missouri has 3 times as many positive coronavirus tests as Kansas. What does it mean?
As of Tuesday, Missouri had identified more than three times as many coronavirus cases as Kansas.
Missouri state health officials reported 1,327 positive tests for the new coronavirus, as opposed to Kansas’s 428 confirmed cases.
But those numbers don’t necessarily show that the pandemic is hitting one state worse than the other.
At least 15,645 Missourians have been tested for the virus in state or private labs, according to public health officials. That is nearly three times as many as the 5,424 tested in Kansas.
Of the residents tested, about 8.5 percent of Missourians and 8 percent of Kansans have tested positive.
Missouri’s population is also about twice as big as Kansas’ according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
According to research from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, the virus will peak in Missouri on May 18, three weeks after the April 27 peak in Kansas. The research predicts about half as many deaths in Kansas from the disease as it predicts in Missouri.
Both states have been hindered by a nationwide testing shortage that forced Kansas to ration testing resources in Johnson County, where the largest number of cases has been reported.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and Missouri Gov. Mike Parson both declared a state of emergency last month in an effort to slow the spread of the virus. Both states have prohibited gatherings larger than 10 people.
Kelly took further steps to enforce social distancing in the state Saturday when she issued a statewide stay-at-home order that went into effect Monday.
Parson has held a consistent position against a statewide stay-at-home order, opting to delegate those decisions to local authorities.
This story was originally published March 30, 2020 at 5:27 AM.
