KC metro tops 200 new COVID-19 cases Thursday as area sees another record day
Reporting more than 200 new cases, the Kansas City metropolitan area saw its largest increase in recorded cases of COVID-19 for the second day in a row Thursday.
227 new cases of the virus were reported Thursday, the day after 194 cases were reported.
No new deaths were reported Thursday
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has a total of 7,173 coronavirus cases and 225 deaths.
Kansas City had 105 of the new cases reported on Thursday. Johnson County had 58, Wyandotte County had 54, Clay County had 11 and Platte County had one. The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services reported two fewer cases of the virus in Jackson County on Thursday.
The department did not immediately respond to questions about why the Jackson County number had dropped.
Hospital admissions continue to keep pace with or exceed discharges, said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System.
“Unfortunately we are continuing to have the same amount of new admissions or even more admissions than discharges and I think that speaks even more to the trend,” Hawkinson said during a daily news briefing.
He noted that younger patients are being seen in the hospital as bars and restaurants reopen in the area.
The number of new cases in the Kansas City area has risen throughout the week.
109 new cases were reported Monday, 174 were reported Tuesday, 194 were reported on Wednesday.
Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas said Thursday that he is “absolutely considering” mandating the use of masks in public to help curb the spread of the virus.
The positive test rate was 5.63% in Kansas City, 5.03% in Jackson County, 3.3% in Clay County, 4% in Johnson County and 15.3% in Wyandotte County. Platte County does not provide this figure.
Missouri reported 19,421 cases including 600 patients hospitalized on Thursday and 982 deaths.
The statewide positive test rate is 5.5%, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services, with a total of 341,648 tests administered.
As of Wednesday Kansas confirmed 12,970 cases including a total of 1,082 hospitalizations and 261 deaths.
The statewide positive rate is 8%, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, with a total of 161,438 tests conducted.
Nationwide the virus has infected more than 2.4 million people, killing more than 122,000, according to a database maintained by Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published June 25, 2020 at 5:24 PM.
