‘The curve is not flattening’: KC metro adds over 375 new COVID-19 cases, 10 deaths
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 375 new COVID-19 cases and 10 deaths on Wednesday.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, gained 379 coronavirus cases for a total of 47,657 to date.
The seven-day average for new cases was 485. Two weeks ago, it was 325, according to data maintained by The Star.
Health officials at the University of Kansas Health System said the metro’s rising seven-day average was concerning.
“We know that that’s going to eventually translate into hospitalizations,” said Steve Stites, chief medical officer at the health system. “It just takes two to three weeks for that to occur as that moves out and unfortunately the curve is not flattening. That’s a problem.”
The health system said 29 patients were hospitalized for the virus, up two from Wednesday.
Ten new deaths were reported in the metro. Three were in Kansas City, two were in Jackson County and five were in Johnson County, raising the area’s total to 690. The first COVID-19 death, a man in his 70s, was reported March 12 in Wyandotte County.
On Wednesday, Missouri reported 160,869 cases including 2,641 deaths. The positive test rate, excluding repeat tests, was 21%, the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services said.
Kansas confirmed 74,456 cases including 952 deaths. There have been a total of 3,506 hospitalizations and there are 235 active clusters, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Across the country, more than 8.3 million people have contracted the virus and 221,550 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
