Kansas City metro surpasses 1,500 coronavirus cases as death toll rises to 80
The Kansas City metropolitan area reported 61 additional cases of the new coronavirus Friday, ending a week where more than 50 new cases were reported daily.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas had 1,508 cases including 80 deaths as of Friday afternoon.
The workweek saw the number of cases increase by 291 with 57 reported Monday, 54 on Tuesday, 61 on Wednesday, 58 on Thursday and 61 on Friday.
The biggest jump in numbers from Thursday to Friday occurred in Wyandotte County, which saw an increase of 21 cases.
Opposition has mounted as Jackson County and the cities of Lee’s Summit, North Kansas City and Independence followed Kansas City’s lead in extending their stay-at-home orders until May 15.
A flyer advertising a demonstration set for noon Monday in Kansas City urges protesters to “flood the streets of downtown Kansas City and demand that businesses be allowed to open up, people allowed to work, and lives returned to normal.”
But health experts warn against it.
“It’s a really bad idea,” said Steven Stites, chief medical officer with the University of Kansas Health System. “If you take a virus that’s highly contagious and respirable and you want to open up society, is there a worse way to make your point than to make everybody sick?”
Officials cited outbreaks at gatherings such as a March conference in Kansas City, Kansas, that is now tied to at least 44 cases and five deaths.
“This is not a hoax, it is not made up, and it is not influenza,” said Stites. “If you operate from that premise, any one of those three points, then you have a danger of making a whole lot of people sick and watching your loved ones die. Bad choice. Bad choice.”
Johnson and Wyandotte counties announced they would remain under Kansas’ statewide COVID-19 stay-at-home order, which Gov. Laura Kelly extended from April 19 to May 3.
On Friday, Missouri reported 5,283 cases while Kansas had 1,705.
In the U.S. more than 662,000 people have contracted COVID-19. Worldwide, the disease has infected more than 2.2 million people, according to Johns Hopkins University.
