Kansas City metro adds more than 250 COVID-19 cases as daily average sees decline
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 250 new COVID-19 cases on Friday as the average number of daily cases continues to decrease.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 264 cases for a total of 31,965 to date.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases was 317. One week ago, it was 378 and two weeks ago it was 331. On August 4, it was 438.
“As long as we can keep that running seven-day average decreasing and as low as possible, I think we as a health system and we as a community are going to be a lot better off,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System.
The health system reported 18 patients were hospitalized for the virus. Seven patients are in the intensive care unit, ranging in age from 32 to 88.
“If everybody can celebrate the weekend and the holiday responsibly, we can continue to have low numbers,” Hawkinson said.
The hospital had 16 COVID-19 deaths in August and has had one this month.
Areas in the metro reported four new deaths Friday, with two in Kansas City and two in Johnson County, raising the total to 416 to date.
On Friday, Missouri reported 88,610 cases to date, including 1,545 deaths.
More than one million people in Missouri have been tested for the virus, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said Friday. The seven-day positive test rate was 13%. The overall rate was 8.7%.
Kansas has confirmed 45,220 cases, including 481 deaths.
More than 427,000 people have been tested, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment. The overall positive test rate was 10.6%.
Across the country, more than 6.1 million people have contracted the virus and 187,200 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
