Kansas City metro sees triple-digit jump in coronavirus cases, but no new deaths
The Kansas City metropolitan area saw its second-largest single-day jump of new COVID-19 cases Thursday with 118 cases confirmed and no new deaths.
In total, the area that includes Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has confirmed 2,736 cases of the new coronavirus. A total of 139 people in the area have died from the virus.
The majority of the new cases reported in the Kansas City area Thursday came from Kansas. Johnson and Wyandotte counties each reported 41 additional cases of the rapidly spreading virus.
Kansas City reported 17 new cases, Jackson County had 11 new cases, Clay County six new cases and Platte two new cases.
The triple-digit increase comes three days after the area’s largest single-day jump of 123 cases Monday. That was followed by 62 new cases Tuesday and 49 Wednesday.
The largest number of confirmed cases in the area is in Wyandotte County, where 951 cases have been reported.
Johnson, Wyandotte and Jackson counties are preparing to reopen some businesses Monday. Local health officials, however, have warned that the reopening of businesses could lead to more cases and that more testing is needed to fully understand the prevalence of the virus.
Clay and Platte counties began reopening this week.
Statewide, Kansas reported 411 new cases of COVID-19 Thursday, bringing the state to 6,144 cases and 147 deaths, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The 44,822 Kansans screened for the virus tested positive at a rate of about 14 percent.
In Missouri, the virus has infected 9,341 people, killing 417, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. As of Wednesday, the state had tested 103,622 people for the virus.
The virus has infected more than 1.25 million people nationwide, killing more than 75,000 according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
