Kansas City metro adds nearly 250 new COVID-19 cases, surpassing 33,000 total cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area added nearly 250 new COVID-19 cases and two more deaths on Tuesday.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 249 cases for a total of 33,006 to date.
The seven-day average for new cases was 296. One week ago, it was 366. Three weeks ago, it was 397.
The University of Kansas Health System said 18 patients were hospitalized for the virus, the same number as Friday.
More people under the age of 50 have tested positive for the virus compared to earlier stages of the pandemic.
“Because of the demographics really of the age, we aren’t seeing the hospitalizations that we saw in the initial parts of the pandemic,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control.
During a briefing hosted by the health system, Erin Corriveau, deputy medical director of the Unified Government Public Health Department, said the number of daily new cases in Wyandotte County has been declining.
According to data maintained by The Star, the seven-day average for new cases in Kansas City, Kansas, peaked on July 22 when it hit 96. As of Tuesday, that figure had dropped to 32.
However Corriveau said testing remains an issue.
“We’re still concerned that not enough folks are coming through to be tested actually, so we’re wanting to really encourage people to come through, especially if you think you’ve been in contact with somebody who is positive for COVID we still really, really want to test you,” Corriveau said.
The overall positive test rate in Wyandotte County was 17.6%.
The overall rate in Platte County was 9.25%.
The two-week positive test rate was 9.71% in Kansas City, 15.47% in Jackson County and 12.3% in Johnson County. In Clay County, the one week positive test rate was 14.92%.
Two deaths were reported Tuesday in the metro. One was in Wyandotte County and one was in Kansas City, raising the area’s total to 457.
On Tuesday, Missouri confirmed 95,113 cases to date, including 1,661 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 13.8%. The overall rate was 8.8%.
Kansas has reported 46,914 cases, including 485 deaths. The overall positive test rate was 10.7%.
Across the country, more than 6.3 million people have contracted the virus and 189,366 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
