Kansas City metro sees record-breaking day with more than 640 new COVID-19 cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area added 643 new COVID-19 cases Tuesday, breaking the previous record of 605 cases set five days ago.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas has a total of 17,820 cases to date.
The positive test rate was 4.72% in Kansas City, 6.72% in Jackson County, 8.15% in Clay County, 7.2% in Platte County, 6.5% in Johnson County and 17.2% in Wyandotte County.
The seven-day rolling average for new daily cases is 488. One week ago, it was 362. Two weeks ago, it was 295.
The metro added three more deaths Tuesday. Two were in Johnson County and one was in Jackson County, bringing the area’s total to 309 to date.
The University of Kansas Health System said they had 35 patients being treated for the virus, up two from Monday.
“Back up to where our peak was about a week ago or 10 days ago,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the health system.
He said people need to wear masks and that “starting to limit gatherings is going to be a big thing.”
Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system, said rapid rises in numbers in Kansas and Missouri were worrisome.
“Both are concerning and both are pretty hot red spots,” he said.
On Tuesday, Missouri reported 44,823 total cases, including 1,213 deaths. The positive test rate was 6.5%.
Kansas, which last released numbers Monday, has tallied at least 26,172 cases, including 335 deaths. The positive test rate was 9.4%.
Across the country, more than 4.3 million people have contracted the virus and 148,298 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
