Kansas City metro adds more than 300 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 300 new COVID-19 cases and three deaths on Friday.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, gained 336 coronavirus cases for a total of 40,601 to date.
The metro added 310 cases on Monday, 389 on Tuesday, 256 on Wednesday and 435 on Thursday, according to data maintained by The Star.
On Friday, the seven-day average for new cases was 320. One week ago, it was 338. Two weeks ago, it was 298.
The seven-day positive test rate was 12.28% in Kansas City, 9.86% in Jackson County, 11.96% in Clay County and 15.46% in Platte County, according to state data.
The 14-day positive rate was 11.8% in Johnson County while the overall positive rate was 17.4% in Wyandotte County, the county health departments said.
One death was reported in Kansas City and two were recorded in Johnson County, raising the metro’s total to 576.
Thirty-two patients were hospitalized for the virus at The University of Kansas Health System, down two from Thursday, according to Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control.
“The real concerning thing about our active patients though — we have nine in the ICU, but seven on the ventilator, so that is almost 80% of our people in the ICU on the ventilator,” he said. “Recently we’ve had 10 in the ICU, but only one of those was on the ventilator, so when you get up to having a higher percentage on the ventilator, that’s pretty concerning.”
During March and April, the health system saw 153 hospitalizations with an an average length of stay of 10.2 days. The patient’s average age was 59 and 5.5% were considered healthy, said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement.
In August and September, there were 338 admissions but the patients stayed on average 5.8 days. The average age decreased slightly to 56 and 17% were considered healthy.
On Friday, Missouri confirmed 129,397 cases to date, including 2,144 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 14.5%, according to the state.
Kansas has reported 61,111 cases, including 698 deaths. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment said the monthly positive rate was 7.2%.
Across the country, more than 7.2 million people have been diagnosed with the virus and 208,191 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
