With weekly average on the rise, Kansas City metro adds nearly 1,300 new COVID cases
The Kansas City metropolitan area recorded nearly 1,300 new cases of COVID-19 and nine additional deaths Saturday.
So far this year, 108 people have died of COVID-19 in the metro, which includes Kansas City and Jackson, Clay and Platte counties in Missouri and Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas. There have been 1,474 deaths since the beginning of the pandemic.
The metro added 1,296 COVID-19 cases on Saturday. The seven-day average of cases, at 949, is the highest it has reached since mid-December, according to data maintained by The Star. One week ago it was 859 and two weeks ago it was at 786.
Kansas City added 397 cases, bringing the total to 32,445, and has recorded 369 deaths since the start of the pandemic.
Jackson County recorded one new death for a total of 264 and 241 new cases. The county has reported 25,179 cases to date.
Clay County has recorded a total of 6,744 cases after another 83 cases were added Saturday. There have been 113 COVID-19 deaths in Clay County. In Platte County, one more person died. Twenty-five people total have died of COVID-19 in the county. Platte County also added 14 new cases, for a total of 2,628.
On the Kansas side, Johnson County added 455 cases for a total of 36,742. Johnson County also recorded seven new deaths, for a total of 499.
Wyandotte County didn’t add any new deaths to its total of 204, but recorded 106 new cases, bringing the total to 15,523.
As of Friday, Kansas had recorded 242,322 COVID-19 cases and 3,148 deaths.
Kansas has distributed 191,225 doses of the vaccine and administered 58,841, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The monthly positive test rate was 13.2%, according to the state’s Department of Health and Environment.
Missouri has recorded 420,583 cases and 5,944 deaths to date. The seven-day positive test rate was 19.9%, according to the Missouri Department of Health and Human Services.
The CDC said Missouri has distributed 406,150 doses of the vaccine and administered 124,721 doses.
Across the country, more than 21.9 million people have contracted the virus and 370,119 have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
