Kansas City metro adds more than 600 new coronavirus cases for third time in one week
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 600 new COVID-19 cases and four more deaths on Wednesday.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 614 new cases for a total of 18,434 cases.
Kansas City has 5,428 cases, Jackson County has 2,957, Clay County has 826, Platte County has 283, Johnson County has 4,717 and Wyandotte County has 4,223.
Wednesday was the third day in one week that the metro has added more than 600 new cases. Tuesday saw a record-breaking 643 new cases.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases in the metro is 496. One week ago, it was 398. Two weeks ago, it was 289.
Doctors at the University of Kansas Health System said they were treating 34 patients for the virus, including eight who were in the intensive care unit.
“We did have an ICU call with a bunch of ICU directors around the city,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. “There are a lot of ICUs that are running heavy in capacity right now.”
Steve Stites, chief medical officer for the health system, said hospitals in the metro reported a peak number of hospitalizations about 10 days ago with about 200 patients.
“It went down a little,” Stites said. “It’s running in around 190, 195.”
Of the four deaths reported Wednesday in the metro, three were in Kansas city and one was in Platte County, bringing the area’s total to 313.
On Wednesday, Missouri reported 46,750 cases including 1,220 deaths. The positive test rate was 6.6%.
Kansas confirmed 26,870 cases including 349 deaths. The positive test rate was 9.4%.
Across the U.S., more than 4.3 million people have contracted the virus and more than 149,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published July 29, 2020 at 3:38 PM.
