New COVID-19 cases rise by more than 100 in KC metro for third consecutive day
For the third consecutive day, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the Kansas City metropolitan area grew by more than 100.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas added 116 cases.
The metro has a total of 5,465 cases, including 203 deaths.
No new deaths were added Friday.
The number of new cases rose this week by 73 on Monday, 73 on Tuesday, 115 on Wednesday and 113 on Thursday.
This month, new cases have risen by more than 100 on seven days. Prior to June, the number of new cases exceeded 100 on only three days.
The overall positive rate was 4.34% in Kansas City, 4.65% in Jackson County, 2.5% in Clay County, 3.9% in Johnson County and 15.6% in Wyandotte County. Platte County does not provide this figure.
Missouri reported 15,585 cases, including 593 hospitalized on Friday and a total of 872 deaths.
Kansas confirmed 11,047 cases, including a total of 973 hospitalizations and 243 deaths.
Data released earlier this week showed that key metrics including the hospitalization rate, positivity rate and number of new cases were declining in both Kansas and Missouri.
However doctors at the University of Kansas Health System expressed concern as the number of patients being treated for the coronavirus began to increase. While the hospital had seen as few as 10 patients, that had increased to 18 on Thursday and was at 15 on Friday, according to a news briefing hosted by the health system.
Earlier this week, the Associated Press reported that 21 states had higher rolling seven-day averages of new cases compared to the previous week.
Nationwide, more than two million people have contracted the virus and more than 114,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
