‘Rocky road ahead’: KC metro adds over 950 COVID cases, hospitalizations keep rising
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 950 COVID-19 cases Wednesday as hospitalizations continue to spike.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri, as well as Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, gained 980 cases for a total of 62,137.
The seven-day average for new cases continues to break the previous day’s record. It now sits at 1,015. One week ago, it was 632. Two weeks ago, it was 421, according to data maintained by The Star.
Eleven new deaths were reported. Five were in Kansas City, one was in Jackson County, three were in Johnson County and two were in Clay County, raising the metro’s total to 864.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 78 patients, breaking Tuesday’s record of 72. Of the 78 patients, 22 are in the intensive care unit with 14 on ventilators.
“The situation on the ground here in our community and across the Midwest continues to become more and more concerning every day,” said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement at the health system.
Hospitalizations typically follow about a week after new cases.
“People stay in the hospital, especially those that are critically ill for five to seven to 15 days, so we have a pretty rough and rocky road ahead of us,” Wild said. “All of the things that we said could happen, if they happened would scare us, in March or April are happening now — a rapid increase in the number of cases, a near exponential growth curve.”
Stormont Vail Health in Topeka also recorded a record number of patients with 66.
On Wednesday, Kansas confirmed 810 hospitalizations, a significant increase since Monday when there were 500. The state has recorded 109,225 cases including 1,215 deaths.
Missouri reported 220,768 cases including 3,323 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate, excluding repeat tests, was 39.9%.
Across the country, more than 10.3 million people have contracted the virus and 240,521 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published November 11, 2020 at 3:43 PM.
