KC officials fear post-Thanksgiving COVID-19 rise as metro adds more than 1,200 cases
Kansas City health officials on Wednesday urged people to take infection prevention measures, such as wearing a mask, seriously over the holiday weekend — especially if they’ve gone out to bars.
Steve Stites, the chief medical officer at The University of Kansas Health System, said during a daily briefing that Thanksgiving may result in bigger gatherings than Halloween.
“So let’s be real careful with that one,” Stites said. “What could come out of that could be even more difficult I’m afraid.”
The Kansas City metro area recorded more than 1,200 new cases of COVID-19 Wednesday and 12 additional deaths, bringing the area total to just short of 1,000.
The area, encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, reported 1,223 new coronavirus cases Wednesday, pushing the number of cases to date to 78,116.
Kansas City added 299 cases, bringing the city’s total to 22,183 cases. Kansas City also recorded seven additional deaths for a total of 276.
Jackson County added one more death, for 176 total, and recorded 204 new COVID-19 cases. The county has reported 16,310 cases to date.
Clay County added 66 new cases, bringing the county’s total to 4,391, and one new death. The county has recorded 65 total deaths so far. Platte County added another 26 cases, for a total of 1,585. Platte reported two deaths Wednesday, bringing its total to 16.
On the Kansas side, Johnson County added 448 new cases of COVID-19, bringing the total to 23,012. Johnson County also reported one new death; 284 people have died in the county.
Wyandotte County didn’t record any new deaths Wednesday and sits at 177 cumulative. The county did see 180 new cases, for a total of 10,635.
The metro area’s weekly average is now at 1,151. A week ago it was at 1,131 and two weeks ago it was 1,015.
At the University of Kansas Health System, 91 people with COVID-19 are hospitalized. That’s down from 93 on Tuesday. Officials said 47 patients are in intensive care and another 21 are on ventilators.
KU Chancellor Doug Girod said he believes the university created “the safest spot in the state of Kansas.” Students left campus for Thanksgiving without “documented cases of spread on campus in any official setting,” Girod said.
Off campus, students went viral in videos of house parties that flouted COVID-19 restrictions.
Missouri has recorded 282,792 cases and 3,776 people have died, according to the state’s Department of Health and Senior Services.
Kansas has logged 147,797 cases of COVID-19 and 1,503 deaths, according to the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
The United States reported nearly 12.7 million cases and more than 261,000 deaths, according to statistics from Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published November 25, 2020 at 4:31 PM.
