Kansas City metro adds more than 300 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths on Thursday
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 300 new COVID-19 cases and three more deaths.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 302 cases on Thursday for a total of 33,557 to date.
The two-week positive test rate was 9.59% in Kansas City, 14.88% in Jackson County and 11.5% in Johnson County.
The one-week positive test rate was 12.68% in Clay County.
The overall positive test rate was 9.47% in Platte County and 17.6% in Wyandotte County.
Two of the recent deaths were in Johnson County, which has the most within the metro to date at 128. The third death reported Thursday was in Kansas City, which has had 96 total. Jackson County has had 75 deaths, Clay County has had 39, Platte County has had 10 and Wyandotte County has had 119. The metro’s total was 467.
The University of Kansas Health System said they have 22 patients hospitalized for COVID-19, up three from Wednesday. Three are in the intensive care unit.
Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control, said mask culture is improving.
“As we are going to be moving into the fall and the winter, continue to wear the masks, continue to evaluate your surroundings,” he said. “It will become second nature where you will be able to stay spaced from people, where you will go to those de-densified areas or restaurants and not meet in those large groups.
“I’ve been optimistic because in the Kansas City metro, our rolling seven-day average is pretty good right now compared to where it was a week ago. So if we can keep those low test numbers, keep those low hospitalization numbers, we will be looking good moving into respiratory viral season, influenza season, as well as the COVID pandemic.”
The seven-day average for new cases in the KC metro area was 265 on Thursday. One week ago, it was 338. Two weeks ago, it was 369, according to data maintained by The Star.
On Thursday, Missouri confirmed 97,591 cases to date, including 1,691 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 12.7%. The overall positive test rate was 8.8%.
Kansas has reported 47,410 cases, including 495 deaths. The overall positive test rate was 10.7%.
Across the U.S., more than 6.3 million people have contracted the virus and 191,444 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
