Kansas City metro adds over 1,000 COVID-19 cases, average for deaths at all-time high
The Kansas City metropolitan area added more than 1,000 new COVID-19 cases Friday as the seven-day average for deaths reached an all-time high.
The area encompassing Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas gained 1,088 coronavirus cases for a total of 117,965 to date.
The seven-day average for daily new cases was 880. One week ago, it was 820 and two weeks ago it was also at 820, according to data maintained by The Star.
Fourteen more deaths were reported Friday. Three were in Kansas City, one was in Jackson County, three were in Clay County, five were in Johnson County and two were in Wyandotte County. The seven-day average for daily deaths sat at 13.2, the highest it’s been since the pandemic began. So far this month, 99 deaths have been reported in the metro. A total of 1,465 people in the metro have died from COVID-19.
The University of Kansas Health System reported it was treating 71 patients for the virus, down from 75 on Thursday. Twenty-three of those patients were in the intensive care unit with 15 on ventilators.
“I’m growing concerned that we are not out of the woods here in Kansas City either as it pertains to infections and the impact on our health care delivery system,” said David Wild, vice president of performance improvement. “Please, please, please remember all those pillars of infection prevention and control. As we spend so much time talking about the promise of a vaccine, those things are no less important today and probably more important than they’ve ever been.”
Experts encourage everyone to wear a mask in public, engage in social distancing and practice good hand hygiene.
On Friday, Kansas confirmed 242,322 cases including 3,148 deaths. The monthly positive test rate was 13.2%.
A total of 191,225 vaccine doses have been distributed in Kansas and 36,538 have been administered, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Missouri reported 416,758 cases including 5,912 deaths. The seven-day positive test rate was 19.8%.
Missouri has received 401,050 doses of the vaccine with 113,369 doses administered, the CDC said.
Across the country, more than 21.6 million people have contracted the virus and 366,664 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
