Seven more people have died of COVID-19 in the KC metro. All were in Wyandotte County
Seven more COVID-19 deaths were reported Monday afternoon in the Kansas City metropolitan area and all of them were in Wyandotte County.
Ninety-six people in the metro area — consisting of Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas — have died.
Of those, 44 were Wyandotte County residents.
The metro reported 22 new cases of the coronavirus in the last 24 hours, bringing the total to 1,581. Last Monday, the number of new cases rose by 57. One month ago, the total number of known cases was 55.
On Monday afternoon, groups of protesters gathered at Kansas City’s City Hall and at the Country Club Plaza demanding leaders lift the coronavirus shutdown orders.
Kansas’ stay-at-home order was extended to May 3. Orders in Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties will expire May 15.
Experts with the University of Kansas Health System said widespread availability of testing and contact tracing are key to reopening society.
“Unfortunately we know that this virus is so efficient at spreading and affecting other people, if we were not to do it in a thoughtful, meticulous manner for opening up, again you could get exponential growth,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control with the health system.
Across Kansas, 1,986 have tested positive and 100 have died from the coronavirus, according to the latest statistics, updated by the Kansas Department of Health and the Environment. At least 405 people have been admitted to the hospital.
With 16,775, negative tests returned, the figures showed Kansas residents were testing positive at a rate of about 11%. As of Friday, the state ranked 49th in testing its residents.
The Kansas City metro area had a total of 1,613 cases, including 89 deaths, as of Sunday, according to data compiled by The Star.
In Missouri, 5,667 people had tested positive for coronavirus as of Sunday afternoon; 176 have died, according to updated data by the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. In Missouri, residents are testing positive at a rate of about 9.6%.
Nationwide, there are nearly 776,000 confirmed cases and more than 35,300 deaths reported as of 3 p.m. Monday, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University. Worldwide, there were more than 2,450,400 cases and more than 168,900 deaths.
This story was originally published April 20, 2020 at 4:23 PM.
