Kansas City metro breaks record for new COVID-19 cases, adding more than 1,400
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 1,400 COVID-19 cases, setting a new record for daily cases.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 1,483 coronavirus cases for a total of 116,877 to date.
That pushed the seven-day average for new cases to 915 from 836 on Wednesday. One week ago, the average was 743 and two weeks ago, it was 860, according to data maintained by The Star.
The previous single-day high for new cases was 1,335 set on Nov. 14.
Nineteen deaths were also reported Thursday, with at least one in every jurisdiction in the metro. Three were in Kansas City, two were in Jackson County, three were in Clay County, one was in Platte County, nine were in Johnson County and one was in Wyandotte County. The metro has recorded a total of 1,451 deaths since the pandemic began.
The University of Kansas Health System reported 75 patients, up from 70 on Thursday. Of the 75 patients, 26 were in the intensive care unit with 11 on ventilators.
The health system said its hospital has admitted 1,977 virus patients since the pandemic spread to the area in March. There have been 182 deaths in the hospital making the mortality rate 9.6%. The average age of its virus patients is 57 while the average age of those who have died is 66. The average stay is five days, said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement.
The health system had a surge in admissions in November and December with 450 admissions each month.
“That number is staggering,” said Wild.
On Thursday, Missouri confirmed 412,426 cases including 5,882 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 20.5%.
So far, 294,850 vaccine doses have been distributed and 105,173 have been administered in Missouri, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kansas reported 236,818 cases including 3,027 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 14.2%.
A total of 131,750 vaccine doses have been distributed in Kansas with 31,938 administered, the CDC said. The state said earlier this week that number of administered vaccines was under-counted due to a lag in reporting.
Across the country, more than 21.4 million people have contracted the virus and 362,983 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
This story was originally published January 7, 2021 at 3:07 PM.
