Kansas City metro reports 19 coronavirus deaths as daily cases top 1,200 again
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 1,200 COVID-19 cases Friday, forcing the weekly average for new cases to a record level for the third consecutive day.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 1,230 cases for a total of 72,608 to date.
The seven-day average for new daily cases was a record 1,190. One week ago, it was 1,024. Two weeks ago, it was 749.
“As that line for new cases continues to increase for new cases in the Kansas City metro area, we expect really without any doubt that the line, the curve of the line for those in the hospital, will increase as well,” said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement at The University of Kansas Health System. “We continue to be concerned. We are not seeing the number of new cases in our community change. We know that the hospital impact is going to continue to grow.”
Nineteen deaths were reported in the metro area Friday, the highest number of new deaths reported since Oct. 24. Three were in Kansas City, four were in Jackson County, six were in Johnson County and six were in Wyandotte County, raising the metro’s total to 940.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 78 patients hospitalized for the virus, up one from Thursday.
Of the 78, 34 are in the intensive care unit.
“But unfortunately, 21 are on the ventilator which is a higher proportion than we’ve had really these past few weeks,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at the health system.
The hospital has had 22 deaths in October and November, which is a 4.8% mortality rate. Fifty-two percent of the patients were from the Kansas City metro.
On Friday, Kansas confirmed 134,533 COVID-19 cases to date, including 1,410 deaths. There were 1,049 hospitalizations with 30% ICU bed capacity available. The monthly positive test rate was 19.3%.
Missouri has reported 262,436 cases, including 3,537 deaths. There were 2,734 hospitalizations with 29% ICU bed capacity remaining. The seven-day positive test rate was 22.6%.
Across the country, more than 11.8 million people have contracted the virus and 253,458 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published November 20, 2020 at 4:03 PM.
