Kansas City metro sets single-day record for COVID-19 deaths with 39 reported Tuesday
A record 39 deaths attributed to COVID-19 were reported Tuesday in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
The rise in deaths was in part due to Missouri’s weekly review of death certificates.
The state’s Bureau of Vital Statistics linked 250 deaths to the virus, the Department of Health and Senior Services said Tuesday.
Locally, Kansas City recorded five deaths, Jackson County added 13 and Clay County added five.
Several deaths in the metro also occurred on the Kansas side. Johnson County added 13 deaths while Wyandotte County added three.
The previous single-day record for deaths was 36, set on Dec. 22.
Forty-nine COVID-19 deaths have been reported this month. The area has recorded a total of 1,415 deaths from the pandemic.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 768 coronavirus cases for a total of 114,367 to date.
The seven-day average for new daily cases was 837. One week ago, it was 754 and two weeks ago, it was 850, according to data maintained by The Star.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 70 patients hospitalized for the virus, the same number as Monday.
“We’re holding steady, not vacillating too much,” said Dana Hawkinson, medical director of infection prevention and control. “But we know that since last week we have had a lot more admissions for active infections.”
Twenty-nine of the patients were in the intensive care unit with 14 on ventilators.
On Tuesday, Missouri confirmed 405,589 cases including 5,825 deaths and 2,657 hospitalizations. The seven-day positive test rate was 19.4%.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 268,075 vaccine doses have been distributed throughout Missouri with 98,589 doses administered.
Kansas reported 231,317 cases including 2,897 deaths with 662 hospitalizations. The monthly positive test rate was 13.8%.
There have been 131,750 vaccine doses distributed with 20,158 administered in Kansas, the CDC said.
Across the country, more than 20.9 million people have contracted the virus and 355,371 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published January 5, 2021 at 3:13 PM.
