Kansas City metro adds nearly 500 new COVID-19 cases, but no new deaths reported
The Kansas City metropolitan area added nearly 500 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, but no new deaths were reported.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 494 new cases for a total of 24,355.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 383. One week ago, it was 365. Two weeks ago, it was 507.
Thirty-nine patients are in the intensive care unit on the Kansas side of the metro. In addition to Johnson and Wyandotte counties, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment includes Leavenworth County in their metro data.
Thirty-six percent of the hospitals’ ICU beds remain available.
After reaching a peak of 39 patients on Tuesday, the University of Kansas Health System reported 24 patients being treated for the virus on Thursday. Nine of those are in the intensive care unit.
“We have had discharges,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the health system. “We have had admissions as well during that time, but overall the numbers are much lower than they were pretty recently, so that’s a very good thing.”
The metro has recorded a total of 358 deaths with 106 in Johnson County, 102 in Wyandotte County, 65 in Kansas City, 53 in Jackson County, 22 in Clay County and 10 in Platte County.
On Thursday, Missouri reported 62,530 cases including 1,323 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 11.8%. The overall positive test rate was 7.8%.
Kansas, which last updated its numbers Wednesday, has 32,547 cases including 395 deaths. The overall positive test rate was 9.75.
Across the country, more than 5.2 million people have contracted the virus and 166,750 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published August 13, 2020 at 4:58 PM.
