Kansas City’s deadliest month: October hits record 176 COVID-19 deaths
October is now the deadliest month of the pandemic in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
This month, 176 residents in the area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, have died from COVID-19.
The number of monthly deaths jumped this fall. In August, the metro recorded 80 deaths. In September, there were 172.
A total of 748 deaths have been identified in the metro. The first virus death was reported March 12 in Wyandotte County, which has now recorded 164 deaths.
There have been 200 deaths in Kansas City, 126 in Jackson County, 49 in Clay County, 13 in Platte County and 196 in Johnson County, according to data maintained by The Star.
Rex Archer, director of the Kansas City Health Department, said the situation is unlikely to improve.
“We would predict that November will be worse than October,” he told The Star. “December’s going to be worse than November and January’s going to be worse than December. We will continue to set records.”
COVID-19 continues to spread in the metro, which surpassed 50,000 total cases on Tuesday.
The number of hospitalizations has become a growing concern in recent weeks. Hospitalizations lag behind cases and deaths tend to lag behind hospitalization numbers, health officials have said.
Archer said the stress of the pandemic — from thousands of layoffs to precautions that prevent family members from being with dying relatives — has been immense.
“The psychological trauma of the mismanagement of this outbreak is horrendous,” Archer said.
He would like to see Congress pass another aid package that would provide businesses such as restaurants and their employees with relief.
“The problem is we don’t have paid sick leave,” he said. “The problem is we don’t have the safety net in place that people are then willing to be isolated or quarantined if they have this disease.”
Most people who have died have been older or had underlying health conditions, but Archer said younger people and those with no chronic problems have also died from the virus.
“It didn’t have to be this way,” he said.
October has also been the deadliest month of the virus at the University of Kansas Health System.
“We’re concerned,” said chief medical officer Steve Stites. “Across the country, the COVID numbers are up 30 to 40% in the rolling two-week average... that trend’s been going on for the last several weeks, in the last month or so. We need to be worried that with schools reopening, people trying to gather more, a lot of COVID weariness and people just saying the heck with the mask, the outcome of that is we’re seeing more disease.”
The Johnson County Department of Health and Environment has closely monitored the virus’s spread and death trends.
“We are concerned any time the numbers increase,” director Sanmi Areola said. “We expect that disease transmission will be more intense with cold weather and more people being indoors.”
The health department urged people to wear masks, practice social distancing, avoid large crowds and stay home if they are ill.
