Kansas City metro exceeds more than 200 new COVID-19 cases for second day in a row
For the second consecutive day, the Kansas City metropolitan area identified more than 200 new COVID-19 cases.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas added 204 cases Friday.
The metro has a total of 7,377 coronavirus cases.
The rising total came as Kansas City Mayor Quinton Lucas announced that masks will be required in public settings starting Monday.
This week, the area added 109 cases on Monday, 174 on Tuesday, 194 on Wednesday and 227 on Thursday, which was the highest single-day increase on record.
There have been at least 16 days this month where more than 100 new cases were added. Previously, new cases had topped 100 three times: on April 30, May 4 and May 7.
Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System said the hospital was treating 19 patients for COVID-19, down three from Thursday. Of the 19, nine are in the intensive care unit.
Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system, said masks work.
“What disappoints me sometimes is that we have politicized a health issue and that’s just wrong,” he said. “The right thing to do is to keep yourself and your loved ones and everybody else safe. The pandemic is not forever, so we make a sacrifice in the short run to keep people safe. And then these stories spring up about masks not working. Really? Why do you think physicians always wear masks?”
The metro also added three deaths on Friday, bringing the total to 228. Two of the recent deaths were in Johnson County and one was in Jackson County.
Missouri has reported 19,914 cases, including 600 patients hospitalized Friday and 990 deaths. The positive test rate is 5.5%, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
Kansas confirmed 13,538 cases, including a total of 1,128 hospitalizations and 264 deaths. The positive test rate is 8.1%, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Nationwide, more than 2.4 million people have contracted the virus and more than 124,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
