Kansas City area approaches 1,200 COVID-19 deaths as positive cases climb in metro
The number of people who died from COVID-19 in Kansas City since the start of the pandemic neared 1,200 Wednesday, according to data released by health officials.
An additional 19 deaths were reported Wednesday, 14 of which came from Johnson County. The other counties seeing their death toll rise were Wyandotte County with three deaths and Kansas City and Platte County each with one new death.
Those deaths brought the number of people dying from COVID-19 in the Kansas City metro area to 1,192, according to data tracked by The Star.
The deaths came as another 943 people tested positive for the novel coronavirus in the metro. To date, at least 98,217 people have been infected with the virus in the metro area, which encompasses Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas.
The seven-day rolling average for new cases in the Kansas City metro dropped to 966. One week ago, it was 1,054. Two weeks ago, it was 852.
With vaccines becoming available, people need to make sure they get the second dose, said Dr. Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control at The University of Kansas Health System, during a morning media briefing.
“Understand that the first does is to prime,” Hawkinson said. “You only get about 50 to 60% immunity from that first dose . . . and that’s durable immunity to protect you. But it’s really needed that you have the second dose and that second dose comes 21 or 28 days after the first dose for the Moderna or Pfizer vaccines.”
It’s still unknown how long immunity will last with the two doses, but people who get both will have a higher immune response and higher chance of not developing the disease, he said. He added that people need to make sure the second dose is from the same manufacturer.
It’s recommended that people with allergies get the vaccine too and be monitored 15 to 20 minutes afterwards, Hawkinson said.
On Wednesday, the Kansas Department of Health and Environment reported 194,569 cases, including 2,253 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 16.1%.
Missouri reported more than 353,038 cases to date, including nearly 4,799 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 17.8%.
Across the country, more than 16.9 million people have contracted the virus and more than 306,243 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. Globally, more than 73.9 million people have tested positive for the virus and more than 1.6 million have died.
This story was originally published December 16, 2020 at 3:57 PM.
