Surpassing 10,000 total, Kansas City metro adds more than 300 COVID-19 cases Wednesday
With more than 300 new COVID-19 cases confirmed Wednesday, the Kansas City metropolitan area has surpassed 10,000 total cases.
The somber milestone arrived as the U.S. surpassed three million cases.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, added 335 cases Wednesday, the second sharpest daily increase since the pandemic began.
Kansas City added 56 of the new cases, Jackson County added 41, Clay County added 16, Platte County added four, Johnson County added 132 and Wyandotte County added 86.
The metro has a total of 10,149 COVID-19 cases.
Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the University of Kansas Health System, said when stay-at-home orders were in effect, the curve flattened.
“That’s when we got down to nine patients,” he said during a briefing hosted by the health system. ”Now society has reopened ... So what works is sheltering, what doesn’t work is a lot of socializing. And that’s painful to say because we all like to do that. But on the other hand, it’s more painful if you get COVID and I think that’s what we have to think about. COVID’s real.”
The hospital said Wednesday it was treating 19 patients for the virus including nine who were in the intensive care unit.
The seven-day average for new cases in the metro is 253. One week ago, it was 204. Two weeks ago, it was 142.
The metro added one new death, in Clay County, bringing the area’s total to 251.
On Wednesday, Missouri reported 25,204 cases, including 1,046 deaths. The positive test rate was 5.5%.
Kansas confirmed 17,618 cases, including 282 deaths. The positive test rate was 8.5%.
Nationwide, more than three million people have been infected and more than 131,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published July 8, 2020 at 3:21 PM.
