Over 800 new COVID cases reported in Kansas City metro as vaccine rollout continues
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 800 new COVID-19 cases Monday as residents and staff at long-term care facilities in Kansas prepared to get vaccinations this week.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 803 cases for a total of 102,541 to date.
The seven-day average for new cases was 852. One week ago, it was 995 and two weeks ago, it was 1,002, according to data maintained by The Star.
Six deaths were also added Monday. One was reported in Kansas City and five were in Johnson County, raising the metro’s total to 1,221.
On Monday, CVS was set to begin the process of administering the Pfizer vaccine at more than 40,000 long-term care facilities across the country.
Kansas will use 17,550 doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine it expects to receive this week to begin this next phase of inoculations, said a spokeswoman for the Kansas Department of Health and Environment.
Facilities in Missouri are also gearing up to roll out the vaccine at nursing homes.
“CVS or Walgreens will come in, will do the vaccine, will observe the patients and the staff as they receive that vaccine, and then will follow up and come back for a second clinic date and then a third clinic date if needed,” said Jessica Kalender-Rich, a national member of the Coronavirus Commission for Safety and Quality in Nursing Homes.
As of the week of Dec. 6, nearly 82,000 nursing home residents have died of COVID-19 in the United States, with about 1,200 deaths among staff, according to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
“We know that nursing home residents are the highest risk people when they get COVID-19, but also the highest risk of being exposed because of their congregate living situation,” said Kalender-Rich.
Officials at The University of Kansas Health System said it had 79 patients hospitalized for the virus, up one from Friday. Thirty were in the intensive care unit with 22 on ventilators.
On Monday, Missouri reported 368,316 cases including 4,947 deaths. There were 2,729 hospitalizations with 22% of ICU beds remaining. The seven-day positive test rate was 17.3%.
Kansas confirmed 204,600 cases including 2,448 deaths. There were 630 hospitalizations with 39% of ICU beds available. The monthly positive test rate was 13.8%.
Across the country, more than 17.9 million people have contracted the virus and 318,602 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published December 21, 2020 at 4:01 PM.
