Kansas City metro area records highest single-day increase in COVID-19 deaths
The Kansas City area saw its largest number of COVID-19 related deaths in a single day Thursday as 11 new deaths were reported.
The previous record number of new deaths was eight, reported on June 20.
The metro area also saw its largest number of new cases in over a week as 378 new cases were recorded. The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has recorded a total of 12,552 coronavirus cases.
The seven-day rolling average of new cases in the metro is 290, the same as it was one week ago. Two weeks ago, it was 188.
The majority of the deaths reported Thursday were in Jackson County, where nine new deaths were reported. Johnson County and Kansas City each saw one new death from the virus.
A total of 283 people have died in the metro area.
Jennifer Tolbert, a director of state health reform at the Kaiser Family Foundation, previously told The Star that spikes and declines the number of deaths from the virus tend to lag a couple of weeks behind changes in the number of infections and hospitalizations.
In a briefing Thursday, officials at the University of Kansas Health System said hospitalizations rose slightly from Wednesday to Thursday with four more patients being treated for the virus and two more on ventilators.
Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, said the hospital is beginning to run short of “critical medicine” used to treat coronavirus patients.
“Things are going to get tough,” said Steve Stites, chief medical officer for the hospital system.
Stites added that Douglas County saw its numbers of new cases flatten out after closing the bars.
On Thursday, Missouri listed 30,422 cases, including 1,113 deaths and 875 people hospitalized.
The positive test rate was 5.5%.
When Kansas last updated statewide data on Wednesday, the state confirmed 20,933 cases, including 299 deaths.
The positive test rate was 8.7%.
Nationwide, the virus has infected more than 3.5 million people killing more than 137,000, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published July 16, 2020 at 2:58 PM.
