Kansas City metro surpasses 8,000 COVID-19 cases, but no new deaths reported Tuesday
The Kansas City metropolitan area surpassed 8,000 total COVID-19 cases after adding 136 new cases Tuesday.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has a total of 8,070 coronavirus cases.
The seven-day average for new cases is 188. One week ago, it was 133 and two weeks ago, it was 100.
Health officials attributed the recent increase to relaxed restrictions and said people in their 20s and 30s were making up more of the cases.
“This is likely what we’ve been talking about, that as we reopen, as people interact more, as physical distancing becomes harder in certain circumstances, that we would see the spread of the virus,” said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement at the University of Kansas Health System.
The positive test rate on Tuesday was 5.65% in Kansas City, 5.23% in Jackson County, 3% in Clay County, 4.4% in Johnson County and 15.5% in Wyandotte County. Platte County does not provide this figure.
A mask requirement goes into effect Tuesday in Wyandotte County and Wednesday in Jackson County. Everyone in public will be required to wear a mask in Kansas starting Friday.
A similar rule began Monday in Kansas City.
“We have really good population data suggesting and saying that people or countries or areas that mask have lower spread of the disease and hence, lower mortality, lower deaths from the disease,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the University of Kansas Health System. “It’s a good culture change.”
No new deaths were reported Tuesday. The metro has had a total of 240 coronavirus deaths. The first death occurred on March 12 in Wyandotte County.
Missouri surpassed 1,000 deaths Tuesday. Of 1,015 total deaths in the state, 529 have been people age 80 or older. The state health department reported 21,551 total cases.
Kansas has seen at least 270 deaths, with 159 being people age 75 or older. The state has had at least 14,443 cases, according to the health department.
Across the United States, more than 2.6 million people have been infected with the virus and more than 126,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published June 30, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
