Six more COVID-19 deaths reported as Kansas City metro surpasses 12,000 total cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area added nearly 300 new COVID-19 cases and six more deaths on Wednesday.
One death was in Johnson County and five were in Jackson County. The number of deaths in Jackson County had been steady, but jumped this week. From July 3 to July 12, the county had reported 25. On Monday, two deaths were reported and on Tuesday, three deaths were confirmed, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.
The metro has recorded 272 total deaths.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has 12,174 coronavirus cases.
Of the jurisdictions, Johnson County added the most cases with 128 of the metro’s 298 new cases.
Kansas City added 79, Jackson County added 35, Clay County added 10, Platte County added nine and Wyandotte County added 37.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases in the metro was 289. One week ago, it was 253 and two weeks ago, it was 204.
Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System said they have seen the number of hospitalizations for the virus increase this week with 22 patients on Monday, 25 on Tuesday and 30 on Wednesday.
“It’s really concerning,” Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, said during a daily briefing hosted by the health system.
During the briefing, Lee Norman, secretary of the Kansas Department of Health and Environment, pinpointed May 26 as the day when the state’s numbers began going the wrong way.
“We have fumbled the ball, people,” he said. “And that’s the bottom line.”
Norman attributed the climbing number of cases and deaths to “inattentiveness and politics.”
Missouri reported 29,714 cases and 811 patients hospitalized Wednesday. A total of 1,103 deaths have been attributed to the virus.
The positive test rate was 5.5%.
This past week, the median age for cases was 35, said Lisa Cox, spokeswoman for the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services. The overall median age is 43.
“Recent cases are definitely still skewing younger than they were early in the pandemic,” she said in an email.
Kansas confirmed 20,933 cases including a total of 1,393 hospitalizations. Statewide, 299 people have died from COVID-19.
The positive test rate was 8.7%.
Across the U.S., more than 3.4 million people have contracted COVID-19 and more than 136,000 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
