Kansas City metro sees COVID-19 cases increase the most in weeks with 85 new cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area added 85 new COVID-19 cases Thursday, the biggest jump seen in nearly three weeks.
The area including Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has had 3,968 cases.
The number of new cases increased this week by 63 on Monday, 54 on Tuesday and 50 on Wednesday.
The metro hasn’t had an increase of at least 85 new cases since May 8 when 96 were recorded.
Three new deaths were also confirmed Thursday. Two were in Jackson County and one was in Wyandotte County.
The coronavirus has caused 183 deaths in the metro area.
The U.S. surpassed 100,000 COVID-19 deaths on Wednesday, according to Johns Hopkins University.
Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said COVID-19 is not the same as the flu, which kills about 20,000 people annually.
“What’s terrorizing about it, or scary about it, you may not know when you’re sick, or you might not know when other people are sick and it’s because of the rapid spread of the pandemic,” he said during a news briefing hosted by the health system.
In addition, research has found that cases where people are asymptomatic may be more common than first thought.
Of the active infectious diseases, “this is the one that should scare us the most because of the number of people who are dying from it. And it is much scarier than influenza — we have treatment for influenza,” Stites said.
Starting Sunday in Kansas City, businesses will be allowed to serve up to 50% of their normal capacity, Mayor Quinton Lucas announced.
Kansas City businesses have been limited to serving either 10 people or 10% of their normal capacities at a time — whichever is greater.
On Thursday, Missouri had 12,673 cases including 707 deaths. There have been 644 hospitalizations, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Kansas has at least 9,337 cases including 205 deaths. There have been 822 hospitalizations, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Nationwide, more than 1.7 million people have contracted the virus.
